The Humans Strike Back
by psykotic addiction
Summary: Youkai and Hollows alike call humans weak and defenseless. They say it's due to the fact there are billions of them that they even manage to survive. This is Humanity kindly requesting you say that a little louder. *Click* *Click*
1. PrologueTimeline

**Author Inspiration:** I am a huge fan of Bleach and Rosario Vampire. One thing that always majorly irritated me was the various plot holes. Monsters and Arrancar always carried this high breed view of humans. Many of them even got idiotic ideas like trying to destroy a city to "preemptively attack humanity". All one would have to do is look at any recent human war to see just how little of value a single city is (that isn't a countries capitol). In WW2 over hundreds of cities became battlefields, and 2 (in Japan at that) were nuked off the map. For youkai to destroy a human city and honestly think they are striking a decisive blow, they'd have to have literally no idea just how wide-spread and diverse humans are. The most likely outcome of a city being destroyed by monsters is the aggravation of 7 billion, nuclear armed, humans, who have poisoned, tortured, and gunned down each other in the millions over such petty things as contradicting political views. What would those same humans do to non-humans who had attacked and killed over a hundred thousand people unprovoked? Most monsters seem to understand this well enough, but somehow youkai keep gathering into anti-human groups to try for a second war against humanity. Logically if 2 or 3 billion average humans swinging claymores and shooting arrows fought and apparently stalemated with the likes of vampires, werewolves, and witches thousands of years ago, then 6 billion humans armed with Nukes, Firearms, and war machines would step on the entirety of the youkai species like they were a joke. Despite the obvious power gap, monsters still continue to try picking a fight.

The second issue is that these fights are always determined by "Power". Things such as flying, claws, and fighting skill are seen as handy tricks but ultimately the person with the higher power level always wins. Anyone who's actually been in a real fight can see how faulty such logic is. The ultimate rule in fighting is that no matter how big or fast someone is, if the fighter is skilled enough, he will come on top. In anime however, that rule is entirely ignored. Characters are quick to judge someone's fighting ability entirely on race and power level and sadly more often than not are right. This especially applies to bleach characters.

This is sort of a big (and likely) "What If" scenario. What if humanity in both these anime weren't nearly as ignorant to their surroundings as everyone assumed? And what if they found a way to defeat such threats on an individual level?

**Prologue & Time line**

1900 July 30th- A worldwide secret conference is called, requesting the attendance of every country either designated a super power or experiencing an abnormally high amount of "unnatural-occurrences" is called. The subject is the presence of monsters that have caused damage and loss of human life across the planet. This meeting, while effective in exposing the truth of the problem as well as many facts on the assailants, did little else. When the subject of how to counteract these threats was reached, however discussion came to an impasse. Many opted for open warfare, while others supported ignoring them, citing them as minor annoyances in the face of inner human dealings. The Russians surprisingly, opted for a compromise. An organization with worldwide funding and support should be tasked with the specific duty of counter acting these monsters. While many favored such an arrangement, talks continued over the course of 10 years over what most would consider as petty details such as how recruits would enter, amount each country should contribute, and where they would be based.

1910 August 21st- The Paranormal Warfare and Defense Contingency organization is secretly founded. On the day it was officially produced, it was given all relevant information, and if possible non-human bodies to study. Content in the feeling that humanity would be safeguarded from outer threats, with founding to the PWCD, the world continued to carry on.

1914 January 12th- A team of highly trained PWCD personnel are assigned to go on the first combat mission against monsters in PWCD history. Armed with the most protective yet mobile gear available, they are sent as a hunter-killer team against a vampire in Eastern Africa who had been responsible for over 50 human deaths. Despite heavy casualties, the mission is a success and the body of the vampire is brought in for study. Emboldened by this success, similar operations are undertaken across the world. Due to the lack of worldwide communication in the monster world, the youkai remain unaware they are being hunted.

1987 October 5th- A scientist under the PWCD discovers that while a human only uses as little as 1 to 10% of the human brain at any one time, it is indeed possible to unlock up to 75% of the human brain through an intense surgery that rewires the circuits and directions of the parts of the brain that focuses on sight and perception. However, the drawback is that the human body itself can't handle keep up with brain's input. An apt comparison would be to have the most advanced CPU in the modern world placed inside a terribly outdated computer. A human who receives this surgery would see minutes pass by like days. A heated warzone would appear to someone with an unlocked brain as a bunch of near motionless people, and thousands of lead bullets moving at the speed of a lightly tossed pebble. While intriguing to experience at first, to perceive at such a fast pace without being able to move fast enough in response would be torture to the human psyche. When asked by the president of the PWCD what requirements a human would need for his body to keep up with that sensory input, the scientist responded with a specific list of muscle, bone, and sensory enhancements that would be essential, then a second list of further enhancements to best exploit the heightened brain capability. The entire biological and organic science division was then rerouted to work on Brain and Body augmentation.

1998 June 18th- The world's first semi-power armor is produced. In reality, what is made is a standard SAS style combat skin but with plates of "steel putty" located on the torso, shoulders, forearms, thighs, and shins. These plates are as light as cardboard but immediately harden to any form impact, specifically bullets and blades. The helmet has steel putty outer plating with the facial area of a SAS pattern gas mask. It's built in with a HUD system to acknowledge humanoid sized motion from every direction within 25 meters. It identifies identical helmets with their assigned codename to mitigate chances of friendly fire. In addition to the armor, a camo system is made that allows soldiers to blend in with any setting, bending light rays around to make one appear transparent. The PWCD, intrigued by the invention, orders several suits and "adjusts" the armor to suit the needs of soldiers who are deployed to fight against monsters. A commando team outfitted with the new armor dubbed the "turtle shell" is deployed with air support to disperse a gathering of lizardmen who intended to assault a city in United States Florida. When a squad member is accidentally discovered and attacked by a lizardman the forearm plates hold against the biting power of the youkai's teeth with ease, shocking both of them. The youkai is given an 8 inch knife through skull for his troubles. The mission is complete without a single man dying, something unheard of for such large scale youkai engagements. The Turtle Shell is made standard issue to all combat personnel in the military arm of the PWCD.

Science yields a new breakthrough as the Sarcos Exoskeleton is created. Using a system of pulleys, wiring, and weight distribution, the exoskeleton takes the strain off the the human body, while not overly inhibiting human movement or overpowering them. The device leaves the wearer's equilibrium off balance if they lean too far forward for any reason, and is near impossible to full tilt sprint in. However, it's been proven that a soldier can do more delicate tasks without fear of putting too much strength into an action, such as toss a ball to someone not wearing an exoskeleton. The results far exceed expectations. For it's ability to make any man a super soldier, the PWCD takes a special shine to the device and aquire several for their own use. There are ideas going around to take the already existing exoskeletons, and clad them with tank grade armor as apposed to simply integrating it with light weight armor like the U.S. Intends to do with it. Though intrigue to the idea is shown, the development departments are already busy designing a smaller power armor suit that can still maintain stealth capabilities. They do however, borrow some of the design of the Sarcos exoskeleton and manage to downscale it. It's physically impossible for technology to directly affect your strength without being physically ingrained into your body, but it's definitely possible to relieve the stress on your muscles, so that your muscles have less weight to move on their own.

They separated it into two parts. The upper body section of the exoskeleton relieves all the weight of the armor and wiring of the upper body sections of the actual armor. The leg sections of the exoskeleton do the same for the leg armor. In this way, the power armor suit is virtually weightless to the wearer, allowing a full range of movement without any impediment to their actions. With the upper and lower half separated, the soldier is capable of turning around, adjusting their stances, and doing anything the Sarcos exoskeleton's size made someone incapable of doing. If a man isn't careful, they could hurt their spine from twisting around too fast, simply to mass distribution. They await progress from the Biological department to decide whether or not the design they've adapted is fit for use by biologically enhanced soldiers.

2000 August 1st- the human augmentation surgery is finalized. 3 Individuals volunteer to take the surgery. Yuri Boyka, an ex-Spetz-naz and veteran in monster fighting, James Wesker, ex-delta force commando and also a veteran in combat against youkai, and Veltro Sojay, a skilled veteran and assassin who has successfully assassinated multiple S-class monsters. All have engaged and won against S-class monsters, even though each individual went about it in wildly different, but no less effective, ways. After 3 months of recovery they awake to find themselves between 7ft. 2 and 7ft 9. In height, abnormally strong (so much so, Yuri unhinged a door, he attempted to knock on), and perceiving at a much slower pace than should be possible. When scientist ran checks, the 3 soldiers found to their amazement, they could sprint at 80mph if. They could lift up to 3 tons with ease, and up to 7 tons at max. What amazed them the most however was during a live fire test, using rubber stun bullets in place of real bullets, an 8 man commando team in full turtle shell armor, went up against Wesker. Wesker then proceeded to dodge every shot fired at him with contemptuous ease by simply leaning or speed bursting away. It looked more like he was teleporting more than he was actually moving. He dropped his rifle and instead charged the 8 man team. He palm thrusted men wearing over a hundred pounds of gear dozens of meters away, dodged pistol shots at point blank range, and smartly retreated and re-engaged whenever he fought more than 4 men in a CQC fight. At one point, he cartwheeled over 30ft in the air and landed in the midst of all 8 men, punching and palm striking at a speed none of them could even perceive. Practice fights with Yuri and Veltro yielded slightly different results. Yuri demonstrated colossal strength by hurling a man who, totaled with his gear weighed 400 pounds, a clear 50 meters with only one hand. The man only stopped when he collided with his squad mates. Veltro, while not demonstrating such extravagant speed or strength, was the more skilled fighter of the 3. He consecutively disarmed and immobilized every single commando he was pitted against. However he used hit and run tactics, coupled with refined skill, never engaging the enemy combatants in force like Yuri and Wesker did. The tests all came to the same conclusion. They had created super soldiers. Bullet timing, strength, and heightened senses were all a given to anyone who took the surgery.

Before implementing the human augmentation surgery on every soldier in the PWCD (if they were willing), the 3 were all gathered for a single operation. They had received reports from satellite that Dracula, the most powerful vampire in the world was planning a large scale invasion of Romania, Transylvania with an army of vampires at his disposal. Only a full-fledged task force with air support could reliably defeat such a force in ground combat, however there'd be no way to cover up an entire battle in the age of camera phones and news helicopters. Instead it was proposed a 3 man team infiltrate and assassinate Dracula before he could finish gathering his forces. If assassination failed, a marauder gunship along with a black hawk was on standby for fire support and fast evacuation. The 3 augmented men were outfitted with turtle shell armor, camo systems, laser sharpened knives, Uzis, M19112 pistol side-arms, and each received a Barrette 50. caliber sniper rifle. Veltro had a pair of wrist mounted laser sharpened blades under both his wrist. The intent was that on the off chance he survived a shot known for blowing entire sections off a man's body then 3 shots from different directions would surely do him in. This is dubbed Operation: Hell sing.

2000 November 3rd- A PWCD adopted black hawk helicopter lands 3 clicks from Dracula's mansion and deploys the 3 Augments. Dracula himself is hosting something of a party where dozens of vampires will be present to forge ties, make alliances, and perform their usual rituals of trying to build their political power. All the while Dracula will sit on his proud throne and oversee the events. If all goes according to plan, Dracula will be smeared across the throne of his by nights end. Operation: Hell sing is now a go.

Author's Note: For those who haven't read the manga for Rosario Vampire, Dracula was the king of vampires, and he hated humans for some reason. He later turns into a giant squid/fly/shark/daemon thingy that after the 3 dark lords kill in the defense of humanity inexplicably revives, eats Moka's mom and dies again. In this version, he doesn't turn into a horrible monster back in the 1200s and go on a human genocide. He sits content that he's superior to any monster or human and broods in his castle for 7 1/2 thousand years. I'll get to the High School arc soon enough. For now the PWCD needs to actually make its presence known in the monster world, so that they don't have to resort to killing everything that takes a shot at the humans. What better way to do that than to kill the king vampire, in front of dozens of weaker vampires, in his own home?


	2. First Strike

**Authors Note:** Thanks for the feedback! Personally, last chapter was typed up, edited, and posted in a total of 4 or so hours (with many breaks in between). My goal is to average 1 chapter every 5 days or so.

Jahm: Thanks! That chapter was over 2,000 words, and usually that covers double the length my previous chapter did. I guess spaced out dialog with my other stories lengthens chapters quite a bit. :/

Verifiaman: I like to think so. But the dozens of other anime and video games following the same example say otherwise.

Pyromania101: When writing that part, I was a bit unsure whether they were Russia, U.S.S.R., or Soviet Union at the time. I told myself after I was done I'd Google it. You can see how well I did at remembering that.

Yapay the master elite: Likewise, I only got interested in Bleach during the Arrancar arc, then immediately lost interest. On a side note, I just noticed you have a grunt's name and an elite's rank. How'd that happen?

**First Strike**

'Romania was a beautiful sight at night. The cities were illuminated, the many preserved and famous castles stood tall, and the sky was black and filled with stars. It's almost a shame it is very likely to turn into a battlefield' Veltro thought wistfully.

Creeping through the forest were arguably the 3 most dangerous humans alive. They were all armed to the teeth, wearing all black armor, and one of them was wearing a hood over his helmet for personal preference. Wesker wasn't wearing a helmet at all and instead opted for Black sunglasses.

"Sentry spotted" Grunted Yuri.

They were a quarter mile away from Dracula's castle. Circling his compound as guards were Ghouls. All of them were made from youki. Apparently Dracula firmly believed no human was worthy of being touched by a vampire much less receiving their blood. Rumor has it, he doesn't even drink human blood, he gets his supply from Ghouls and youki servants under his employ. Veltro himself didn't know whether to feel thankful or insulted at that tiny bit of info. Either way he would feel all the better when this bastard was dead. However the Ghouls needed to be dealt with first. Patrolling the east side of Dracula's mansion was an unidentifiable monster, made into a ghoul. It reminded Wesker of Baraka from Mortal Kombat, but without the bone sword arms.

Veltro, who was crouched beneath the bushes with his camo system activated, eased up from a crawl into a crouch, looking as if he was made from clear plastic. The outline of a thin blade darted out and back in his wrist without a sound. His augmentations made him exceptionally strong and fast, but until he was certain of his new limits, he wouldn't try to rely on them. In his long career of killing youki, he quickly learned many of the previous methods for killing humans was either ineffective or overkill, depending on the species. For example; a Lizardman's neck, due to their relationship with gators and crocodiles, was a lot stiffer and thicker than a human neck. For ogres, getting stabbed in the heart wasn't immediately lethal, due to just how massive the heart had to be to support such a large body. With his augmented strength, he imagined many of the stealth kills he couldn't perform before were open now, but he wouldn't risk it. Especially on a high risk mission like this, he wouldn't. His wrist blades would need a thorough cleaning and sharpening by the end of this operation.

The Ghoul was hardly aware of anything. He was a guard, thought of by many as pointless. No one would be anywhere near dumb enough to attack a vampire in his home. No one would certainly dare to intrude on a vampire meeting unless they had a death wish. Dracula's house hold was no exception. The Ghouls were purely there as symbols of power and intimidation. 'How lame', the youki thought tiredly. 'I thought I'd be a powerful soldier in the strongest army in the world! I'd kill a few hundred humans here and there, build my own little empire, and live like a king!' The ghoul started bitterly. 'But no. I'm pacing back and forth in front of a wall, with my power being put to waste! I should-

"-umph!"

A fist launched out and punched him in the throat.

Before his hands could come up to protect him, a second hand was placed over his heart. Something sharp shot out from the wrist and stabbed through his chest, piercing his heart. The last thing the Ghoul saw was a hooded helmet staring down at him coldly.

Veltro stared at the slumped over body in his arms for a second. He had killed a ghoul before. It died to overconfidence, forgetting that no matter how physically powerful, it wasn't bulletproof. Monsters had an odd tendency to brag about their superiority to their enemies, especially humans. The PWCD operatives never complained about this however, seeing as this made it laughably easy to shoot the target in the head mid-sentence, and be done with it. That ghoul was different than this one in appearance though. It had animalistic features such as elongated teeth that shouldn't even fit inside a mouth that size, and slits for retinas. Besides that though, it looked every bit like a human. It was probably due to whatever youki this thing was before he received vampire blood, but somehow this one was just…off. Veltro shook it off. They died just as easily and as far as he was concerned, any differences beside that shouldn't bother him.

"Sentry down" Veltro relayed to his allies

"Good. Get inside and set up a shot. Be ready to intercept him at any escape route." Wesker replied.

"What of you?"

"I'll scale the wall and see if I can get a decent vintage point from outside the castle. Yuri will do the same on the opposite side."

Veltro winked his light at Wesker and re-engaged his stealth system, Wesker and Yuri following his example. Veltro stopped in front of the door and watched for anything on his motion-tracker to indicate someone was in the room ahead. When 2 blips came up, he frowned. Unlike humans, youki could heard a flash bang go off from 2 rooms away, eliminating the textbook response to this situation. With his heightened reflexes however, he figured he could reliably shoot both creatures before they could respond. Bracing himself, he elbowed the door open while his other hand drew his silenced Uzi. 2 Ghouls, who had been arguing over something nearly to the point of blows, turned to see a door slam open. 2 muffled burst and they both crumpled to the ground, their faces riddled with bullet holes. Veltro didn't give the self-proclaimed "invincible" monsters a second glance.

Wesker had worked his way up to the roof. To his disdain however, the only view into Dracula's main hall, where the party was being held, was a window with moonlight beaming through. Camo cloaking or not, someones bound to notice the man shaped shadow on the dinning room floor, and look up at the window. Instead, he went to each window, being careful to not cross in front of one. He looked at each window and traced it to the spot that it illuminated. One window's light beamed directly into a support beam, which no one would see his shadow on from this angle. It was a bit of an awkward angle, but he could see Dracula well enough. The Vampire in question happened to be giving a speech to his guests. Removing his Barrette from his back, he radioed in.

"This is Wesker. I'm in position." Wesker lined his shot up. At this angle, if Dracula took 2 steps to the left, he'd be out of his line of sight due to the window's size. He would have to reposition, or hope the Vampire walks back.

"This is Veltro. I've cleared the back of the mansion of Ghouls. You'll be pleased to hear our augmentations make snapping a Ghoul's neck, and by extension a vampire's neck, possible." He giddily continued. "I'm fairly certain that I can kill any vampire in here with my bare hands, provided I can dodge fast enough."

"Don't deviate from the mission Veltro. We pull the trigger, and leave while everyone is in chaos. Avoid unnecessary conflict."

"This is Yuri. I have vampire in my sights for Clear shot. Queue to fire?" The Russian grunted.

"I've got a clear shot at the back of this bastards head" Veltro stated. "Fire on my mark: 3, 2, 1…"

xxXxx

"Vampires, as you know, we are shamed. We are the most powerful creatures on this planet; no youki would dare oppose us. We were once the most feared. The simple mention of us would make the world tremble. But now look at us. We live like cowards! We hide from the weakest most miserable things on this planet." Dracula's face contorted, as if he had tasted something rotten. "We conform to those, not only weaker than us, but the weakest of the weak! Humans! We rule the youki with an iron fist, but even we are reduced to this charade of pretending to be something we're not. We cannot continue like this. We can't hide, and we will not hide from such an inferior species. We will claim what is rightfully ours! We'll have dominion of the world, with humans at their rightful place; kissing the heels of the lowest youki's foot…if we happen to feel merciful." A loud applause of clapping followed from the Vampires, evil smiles, or impatience at not already killing written all over their faces.

"But we are not ready yet. At our current numbers they'll simply bury us in bodies like the swarm of insects they a-"

_**BOOOM!**_

_**BOOOM! BOOOM!**_

Silence rained across the Mansion.

Dracula's head and upper torso had disappeared in a mist of blood. A millisecond later the rest of his body had exploded in a similar matter. Not even a full finger was left to hit the ground, just bloody ribbons. Only a single sound reverberated across the halls. A spent shell casing clattered to the ground. While it may have not been noticed by most in a human crowd, the heightened hearing of vampires and ghouls alike had alerted them to what had happened.

Dracula, the mightiest and most inspiring monster to live, had been murdered in the most cowardly way a vampire could possibly be killed by.

A gun.

The Ghouls and a few enraged Vampires sprinted in the direction they heard the shell casing drop while others turned at the sound of glass shattering on contact with the ground. Holes were made in both mirrors, meaning the shots had come from 3 different directions. Of course only someone who had stayed still and took in every detail calmly could come to that conclusion. With the exception of a single family of vampires, everyone or everything had gone off to pursue the killers of the Great revolutionary in whatever direction they first noticed. It just so happened that the last name of this family was Akashiya.

xxXxx

Veltro was sprinting faster than he ever had in his life. He was thankful that he had taken the time to remember the shortest way back outside beforehand. Coming to the door where the 2 Ghouls from earlier still laid, he sprinted outside. And he immediately regretted it. 5 Ghouls were approaching the entrance after having heard the shots. He doubted he could evade them, and still make it back to evac. So he had to go through them. Whipping out his silenced Uzi without breaking stride, he sprayed the Ghouls in front of them while they charged madly. All of them took hits but only 2 fell to lucky hits. The rest didn't notice. He continued to sprint forward, firing his M19112 with his other hand and killing another. Without his arms pumping, he slowed from an 50 mph sprint to a controlled 30mph run.

The first Ghoul came into striking range and swung wildly. Veltro saw the world come to a crawl. The punch was coming at a laughably slow pace. He leaned back, just out of the arc of the punch, and brought his side arm and Uzi to bear. The Ghoul hadn't even realized it missed when an Uzi and a M19112 emptied into the side of his head. The second Ghoul came and swung a left hook wildly. Veltro ducked under the swing and kicked out the back of its knee, forcing it to the ground. He managed to open his mouth in surprise before a single shot discharged into the back of his head. Firing the last of his clips into the 12 or so Vampires and Ghouls tailing him, he placed both in their holsters before continuing to sprint. He was tempted to fire his barrette at his attackers from the hip, but knew that while he was indeed faster, he wasn't that much faster.

"This is Veltro. I'm being tailed! I need assistance." Veltro requested. Avoid unnecessary conflict huh

"Join the club. We all are. A UAV has set up a NAV marker at my request. Rendezvous there and we'll call fire support." Wesker informed before cutting the link.

xxXxx

To always have the physical disadvantage against a genocidal and arrogant enemy was frustrating. To have the strength and speed advantage given to you, then thrust in the middle of a forest with half a dozen of such enemies was to him, sweet, sweet revenge. A ghoul ran at him with a powered overhead punch. Using his new found strength, he blocked the punch by placing his right forearm in the path of the ghoul's wrist, stopping the punch cold. The Ghoul blinked in surprise.

It was no secret to trained fighters that located at your wrist was a pressure point. By hitting it hard enough, you could stop all motion in the fist and forearm. If used correctly, a child could stop the punch of a grown man by counter punching at the wrist. A well enough trained fighter could stand up to someone twice their size by being fast enough to hit those spots whenever their opponent threw a punch.

It just so happens that Yuri, an ex-spetz-naz, was taught that particular skill.

The angry russian responded with a swift and hard left upper cut to the solar plexus and a right hook across the face. He grabbed the monster by the back hem of its pants and its collar, lifted it of the ground upside down and slammed it down head first. Science and gravity took their toll and the ghoul's neck broke on contact with the ground. It didn't get back up.

The other Ghouls stopped, not expecting a creature with literally no yoki power to kill one of their own so easily. Yuri looked around and wished he wasn't wearing a helmet, just so he could spit. They were cowards in his eyes. They call humans who fight stronger enemies than themselves across the world, weak; but when an enemy proves to be stronger than anticipated they shy away? He doesn't give them a chance to regroup. Picking out the one vampire in the group, the only creature without a tattoo like mark on its neck, he fires at it with his barrette as if he were firing an assault rifle. The shot impacts against the vampire's chest blowing out his entire torso. A head and a pile of limbs fall into a pile where an S-class youki once stood. With machine-like efficiency he repeated this 2 more times to the closest ghouls in his vicinity. By the time the 3rd body hit the ground, the other ghouls had just began to charge. Inconvenienced, he dropped the now spent rifle to the ground and fired his Uzi and M19112 in each hand, killing 2 before his sniper had touched the ground. The last Ghoul came up behind him and tried to run him through with a youki powered, clawed hand. He took a backwards step to the right, out of the claws path, and drove his forearm into its throat as it was passing by him, close lining the ghoul. He pointed his Uzi down and held trigger until the clicked was empty. A quick reload and retrieval on all his weapons and he was on his way.

xxXxx

In a tree, a Vampire nearby grimaced.

Her name was Akuha Akashiya. Her father had sent her to secretly observe the assassins, guessing they would more than likely escape. However, neither she nor her father ever imagined they'd shoot their way out. She glared at the being that had just murdered 6 S-class youki, one being a Vampire, and an ally of their family. It was a human, she was certain, but she refused to believe it. Humans were the weakest creatures on the earth. It was only due to the invention of guns that any one human could possibly pose a threat to a Vampire or Ghoul. This one had killed 6, which guns or not, shouldn't have been possible. He moved at an even faster speed than a werewolf, who was the uncontested fastest creature on earth. It blocked a Ghoul's punch which only another S-class monster could do. But despite that, it could only be a human. It had absolutely no daemonic aura, something even the lowest goblin and gremlin had a trace of. It wore armor that only a human would wear. It was armed with cowardly guns that only a cowardly human would carry in such a large supply. She frowned and decided to follow it. If it was indeed a human, she'd knock it out and question it. And once she had everything she wanted she would kill him as slowly and painfully as possible.

So caught up was she in her leering that she never noticed her attacker until it was too late. A hand wrapped around her throat and hurled her off the tree branch and into an adjacent tree, cracking the trunk. She winced but otherwise was unaffected. Looking up she saw a second human outfitted like the first but wearing shades rather than a full head covering helmet. She narrowed her eyes, in anger, indigence, and hatred. All of which relating to the fact she had just been assaulted by an inferior human.

'HOW DARE HE!' She yelled in her mind.

Seeing red, she began to charge. Baring her fangs, she took the first few steps in her building charge but suddenly saw black. She opened her eyes and discovered why. She had been blindsided by the helmeted human with a vicious rifle butt, who she knew for a fact was 150 meters away just a few seconds ago.

"How are you humans able to do this?" She barked, frustrated at the 2 lesser beings. That rifle butt had actually dislocated her jaw, an impossible feat for any human. She felt her healing powers already mending the wound.

Ignoring her, Yuri leveled his barrette at her and pulled the trigger. Immediately acting on her training at the site of the gun, she went intangible, letting bullets pass straight through her. The high powered 50. Caliber bullet passed right through her and blew out a chunk of the tree she was in front of. Yuri was dumbstruck. He hadn't missed, of that there was no doubt, yet there she stood without a even a grazing to show. Taking advantage of his confusion, Akuha charged the human, aiming a strike at his heart. He quickly recovered from the shock and used his Barrette 50 Cal. to try to make the strike glance off. Rather than that happening though, her fingers punched through the steel of the gun. Seeing his adapted shield being penetrated, he forced the gun to the left, taking Akuha's hand and momentum with it. Seeing how open her torso area was, Yuri rammed his left knee into her gut. Akuha grunted in pain, as she staggered back, the high powered sniper rifle slipping off her hand. A plated hand wrapped around her left wrist and spun her around to face the helmet-less human, who hooked her across the face, upper cutted her, and gave a straight kick to her gut. Before she could fall back, he grabbed both her wrist. He then fell flat on his back, bringing her with him, and planted both his feet firmly into her chest shooting her 29ft into the air. Akuha recovered while still airborne, and positioned herself to land on her feet. Before she came down however, a knife imbedded itself into her chest, barely missing her heart. She fell on her back and looked up.

The humans had learned the trick to certain S-class monsters. They could use their powers to solidify themselves against attacks, but they couldn't change their body make up. This meant a single punch would hurt them just as badly as it would a normal person. The vampire would just heal from it and dull the pain a lot quicker. If I vampire was hit fast and hard enough, they wouldn't have the time to adjust properly to the on slot of attacks. Werewolves used to be the only species privy to that secret, but now PWCD special forces would have to be added to that list.

There stood another helmeted human, this one wearing a hood. She grimaced. She was certain in a pitch fight she could win but they were using hit and run tactics. Every charge she attempted, a human would intercept her. For all her speed however, she couldn't move fast enough to block. Now there were three of them. Tearing out the knife imbedded in her left breast, she turned and ran, activating her incorporeal powers. She heard gunshots and felt bullets pass through her, but didn't dare stop sprinting. She could only hold on to her intangibility like this for so long. If she wasted a single second in getting out of their range, and lost hold of her technique, she'd be skewered by the amount of bullets. She was far out of sight of even their augmented vision when they finally stopped firing.

"What was the hold up? It was just a single vampire." Veltro, never took so much pleasure in speaking down about Vampires in his life. The knowledge that he was so much more skilled that killing one was hardly an issue, felt empowering to him.

"She had strange capabilities. She passes through solid objects at will, including bullets." Yuri walked over and held up his barrette, which was sporting 5 gouges and palm print connecting the holes together. It was clearly useless now. Yuri ejected the magazine as well as all his reloads for the weapon, handing them over to Veltro and Wesker for their use. They both gladly accepted the ammunition. Wesker, placed a hand to his ear and began to call for evac.

"Veltro, how did you and Wesker escape?" Yuri asked.

"I dived into a shallow river. My helmet was air tight so I could hide under water while the monsters circled the river. Then I activated my camo system to creep past them." Veltro paused. "I think Wesker just shot all his pursuers."

The man in question didn't even acknowledge them as he finished up his conversation.

"Alright Evac is on the way. The Marauder gunship is circling for targets. After we leave, it's been given clearance to turn this entire area into a crater afterward. Let's hide and lay low until pick up." Wesker announced.

Suddenly a twig snapping was heard.

2 Uzi's and a M19112 were trained on the intruder.

There stood a vampire in a loud pink dress that starkly stood out in the forest. Her hands were raised in the universal gesture for "I surrender". Veltro and Wesker glanced at each other, conveying their suspicion perfectly. A vampire that surrendered was like a fish that willingly jumped onto a fisherman's boat, with full knowledge of what that fisherman would do to the fish. Yuri stood stone faced and glaring.

"Humans please lower your weapons. I mean you no harm." She spoke in Japanese, which none of the augments spoke fluently. Rather than stating it with confidence or demanding, she said it in a soft, yet determined voice. She took a step forward and Yuri fired a warning shot an inch short of her foot. She flinched, but didn't change her facial expression.

"Why I shouldn't kill you, vampire?" Yuri spoke in flawed Japanese, in response to her language.

"I mean you no harm Humans" She repeated in English, seeing they didn't speak Japanese well, hoping the English letters on their clothes meant they were fluent in it. "I came to apologize on behalf of my daughter; she was only to observe you, nothing more. I also came to thank you." Yuri, Veltro, and Wesker all gave each other odd glances. "Contrary to what you think, not all Vampires hate humans. I along with my allies, were prepared to fight Dracula. His attack would've caused much suffering for all."

"If you're thanking us for killing that genocidal bastard Dracula, than your welcome. But you still didn't answer my first question." Yuri raised his Uzi to eye level. The Vampire's eye's widened. She had thought that the knowledge that they both wanted the same thing would build a bridge. Didn't the humans themselves say 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend?' Quickly deciding on her next words, she spoke swiftly. Even as powerful as she was, she couldn't regenerate from a bullet to the forehead. She hated guns, but for a different reason. Vampires hated them because they eliminated the need for fighting ability, something vampires prided themselves on. Guns weren't affectionately named by the humans as 'the equalizer among men' for no reason. She hated them because they only caused destruction and death, regardless of the target. You could fight for a good cause and not have to kill or even hurt anybody. Killing and maiming was all a firearm could accomplish.

"You shouldn't shoot me because me and my allies have been defending humanity where they couldn't themselves for the past 50 years." Veltro raised an eyebrow.

"PWCD has been fighting your kind for 90 years in defense of humanity, across entire planet. We didn't need help then. We don't need help now." Yuri growled, though his flawed English took away from the threat. Wesker put a hand on his arm, managing to glare through a pair of sunglasses. Yuri scowled beneath his helmet and lowered the sub-machine gun.

A helicopter was heard approaching.

Turning to see it land, Wesker turned and nodded toward the Vampire, before heading toward the landed helicopter. He motioned for Yuri and Veltro to follow him along to their ride home. Yuri gave a last withering glare at the monster, and turned away. The Vampire called to him.

"I hope we can be friends in the future, human!" She stated bubbly waving to him. Yuri, taking it as an insult, called back.

"Bite me."

"Really?" Yuri face-palmed, forgetting that the insult had different meaning for Vampires. He continued without a word, eager to get away from this place.

Veltro felt it prudent to give the only friendly monster he ever met a heads up before leaving.

"You may want to take your family and leave, vampire. A gunship will begin bombing this place once we have cleared the area."

"Thank you. And please, call me Akasha." She stated before turning to leave. Veltro stood and admired her rather feminine curves before turning to leave. He shook his head in idiocy. Everyone knew that, monster women have a system of attacking and often trying to eat their men before accepting them. On top of that, with the exception of a few species, they were all horribly disfigured monsters simply using a human appearance. The constant reminder of this fact is what kept the more hormonal men, and sometimes women, away from the seemingly friendly fish women and succubi.

He hoped that an unfortunate boy never caught the attention of multiple monster women at once. Who knew what consequences would come of that?

xxXxx

2000 November 6th undisclosed location.

The President of the PWCD was pleased to say the least.

He had received a detailed report from the mission as well as video footage. Before now, the very act of hunting a vampire was time consuming and costly. On average, for every S-class hunter killer mission, it was estimated that 5 out of every 8 would die in combat. With the invention of Turtle shell armor, that ratio became 1.5-2 out of every 8.

'Now all that will change' he thought happily.

He expected at best for the 3 men to kill Dracula and escape with 1 or 2 casualties. What he read however was that they had succeeded in killing a total 24 S-class monsters, not counting Dracula himself, and taking not a scratch in return. They had even discovered a vampire with unnatural intangibility powers and driven it back with ease. Oh he felt like a little boy on Christmas day!

The last bit of information replaced that mirth with a suspicious scowl. There were monsters that defended humanity? He shrugged it off. They would've run into such a group by now if that were case. To their credit, however, the area they operated in, a number estimate, and the fact they only responded to imminent threats to humanity all added to validity of this "Akasha's" story.

It all mattered little in the long run. Brain and body augmentations were being distributed, a full power armor system was being produced (which was estimated to be complete in 2 years), and at an estimate of 5,000 men and women in the PWCD armed forces, the defense of humanity would no longer be a question of if they were capable, but how fast they were able to get there.

He glanced at the other reports he had missed in his excitement to read the augment mission report and gave one in particular an odd look.

Invisible monsters in Karakura?

"Why does weird shit always happen in Japan?"

xxXxx

Authors note: I'd like everyone to know who the first 3 augments (and certainly not the last) were based off of. As well as what a lot these ideas came from.

James Wesker- Albert Wesker from "Resident Evil 5"

Veltro Sojay- Vector from "Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City"

Yuri Boyka- Yuri Boyka from the "Undisputed" movie series.

Turtle Shell armor- A segment in the show future weapons talking about a suit of power armor estimated to be complete by around 2020 or so. I figured an organization getting worldwide tech access and plenty in economic support would shave a few decades off that time.

I planned for the hollows to come in far later, but realized that if I waited 5 or 6 chapters before bleach was even mentioned, I'd lose the attention of the Bleach fan base entirely. And before I get my head ripped off over how pathetically weak I'm making Ghouls and Vampires, understand that no one in the RV series has ever been fast enough to dodge bullets after they were fired. A werewolf with a shotgun would've wasted anything he came across but because anime like to have unrealistically drawn out fights, everyone seemingly miraculously survived deadly wounds, or happened to destroy/mitigate/counter anything that would quickly end a fight. Since plot devices don't apply here, no one is going to survive a shot to the head or pull a one-time trick out of their ass to save them from certain death. Akuha may be an annoying character, but after years of tangling with Mafias and gangs, she respects what a gun can do and has a skill she can use to evade it, hence the only reason she survived. The humans always fight while avoiding getting hit. Turtle shell armor is resilient, but punches that snap trees like twigs aren't something to be trifled with.

Hollow fights are entirely different. The Gillians and a few normal hollows have bulletproof bodies by nature. As such, the call of duty-esque methods won't work on them. Not to mention a small menos would likely beat the strongest of vampires with their own leg. Against arrancar and hollows, humans have to resort to real dirty fighting, such as busting out an arrancar's eardrums, knives through the eye, placing high-explosives inside a hollow hole and so on. And if you haven't figured out be now, yes I'm thinking really hard how to put a hollow/arrancar and a rietsu-less human on even ground. Expect a lot of cheap shots, and fight-scenes that make you wince in this fic.


	3. Another day at the office

Author's note: thank you for all the feedback people.

To those wandering how a hollow can be killed by a human, I can go to the TV show "Future Weapons". How many people reading this know that sonic weapons and ray guns actually exist in real life? Sonic weapons, if put on a high enough frequency can cause organ failure/ruptures, pop blood vessels, shut off your brain, and at worst case, liquidate your insides (in another words kill you, regardless of protection, in fact the more dense you are the more effective it is). Ray guns are basically compacted heaters that on their lowest setting make you feel like scolding water is covering you. At highest it microwaves you from the inside out (not sure how effective this would be to a hollow). It's handy to have, when butting heads with evil, murderous ghosts. As well, if a high powered bullet entered a hollows eye and passed through into its brain, bypassing its hierro, it'd certainly kill it. I imagine to avoid pressure/suffocating rietsu problem, one would have to wear a suit that can handle pressure and provide its own life support. Power armor comes to mind here.

In addition, there are many ways to simply "hurt" a hollow. Arrancar may not need ears or even the ability to breath, but if someone claps their hands against your ears hard enough, your eardrums will feel like an opera singer hit a high note an inch away from your ears. It won't be lethal, but it'd be painful as hell.

Anyway I won't spoil ALL of what humans can bring against hollows. However, just as a form of foreshadowing, those of you familiar to the universe of 40k may recognize a few things in this fic.

Mocy: Thanks! In my defense on the fight scenes, none of them took a direct hit from a vampire or anything. Hell, Yuri was the only one who could hit hard enough to deal any significant damage to a Vampire or Ghoul and he's known for being strong.

Yayap the Master Elite: On the contrary. The Winter War is being fought right now, while all this is happening.

Maaka oro: Spartan 3s? I was going for Spartan 2s on 5 hour energy, but ok. :D

Cornholio: Well the paragraph above was dedicated to most of your input on hollows. However, I always thought the eye thing was Ulquiorra's trademark. They can all do that?

Jahm: Thanks for the vote of confidence! I won't let you down! Believe it! * Naruto sues for copyright*

**Another day at the office**

2005 July 30th

The President of the PWCD was happy with his organization's progress. 95 years ago they were little more than a collection of humans, seemingly in over their heads. They had fought on lopsided terms where any advantage in air support, weapons, or equipment was mitigated by the lacking physical ability of the soldiers, compared to what they fought. They were effective to be sure, but any operation against youki, especially the S-class ones, was dreaded. The troops went into combat, knowing that they all weren't going to come back. Now the tables have turned.

Flipping through his collection of reports he had meant to read through, he sighed in content. A lot had changed in the past 5 years. With the invention of a Super Human surgery, 5 years ago Humans could now fight with most monsters on even terms, unarmed and unsupported. The production of the new power armored suit, 3 years ago, boosted strength, speed and reaction to 1.5 of what the augment could output previously. It appeared to be a black mesh like body suit with black armor plates covering the torso, head, forearms, shoulder, shins, kneecaps, thighs, hands, feet, and the groin. It was rather boxy, but when placed on gave the wearer the appearance of a steel giant with bulging muscles.

With access to super soldiers and advanced power armor, the PWCD's military arm had set upon the youki world with abandon. The most prominent organization in the monster world, fairy tale (who sought to re-ignite war against humanity), was annihilated in open warfare for the youki world to see, and no one but Humanity to blame it on. PWCD personal air force roared across the skies, blanketing the area with high explosives, and incendiary bombs. A handful of battle tanks, that were called out to deal with the more colossal sized youki, rolled through monster populated towns, daring anything to oppose them. Humans in power armor gunned down cannon fodder and legendary monsters alike. Each and every fairy tale base, recruiting area, and operative, secret or not was found and destroyed with extreme prejudice towards the monsters that considered themselves an ally to the anti-human organization. Those that had surrendered, due to not having any jail to place them in were either executed or set free, depending on their rank and what other monsters confessed about their deeds towards humans. Any complaints of inhumane treatment were responded to with a single sentence, "humane treatment only applies to humans". It wasn't perfect, but it was better than simply killing everyone on sight.

The blatant eradication of fairy tale also had a pleasant side effect.

The monster world was terrified.

Before, the idea of a human organization that hunted monsters was laughable. Many admitted that there were monster hunting humans, but they were just mercenaries and/or oddly skilled humans, who were unorganized and roamed freely. When word began to spread that the humans had launched an assault on a youki organization and not only won, but devastated anything that dare stand against them, many youki thought the charade of pretending to be human was over and they had been discovered. Monsters across the planet either went into hiding or tried to organize a resistance. The ones that organized and tried to strike back were intercepted and easily destroyed. After a year and a half of hysteria, the youki had finally realized they weren't actively being hunted or bombed and returned to a semblance of normalcy. However, monsters lost whatever fear they had for S-class monsters in place of the PWCD military. Nowadays if a team of PWCD augments walked through a youki populated town, in search of something or someone that had wronged another human, the general consensus was to stay out of their way, tell them what they wanted, or go peacefully if they came for you. Those that ran were either easily caught, or more often, shot in the back. Those that fought were shot in the head. Those that in some way or another managed to escape were assassinated either by a sniper or an invisible knife. In essence, before Augments, humans were only feared if in force and S-class monsters were each feared individually. Now, humans were seen in a whole new light. They were simply a synonym for death if aggravated in any way. Monsters had even done away with the "kill humans on sight" order. The purpose of it had been defeated. It was also because the PWCD had been proven to be able track any one civilian on record anywhere in the world. If they went missing, and a monster was discovered to be involved, heads would roll.

The president chuckled. Monster disturbances in this day and age were a seventh of what they once were. If a youki did something as (comparably) simple as rape a human, he was avoided for fear that whatever vengeance was to be taken on him would wash over on them as well. It made their job a lot easier, and now he was forced to read old reports due to all his current ones simply being round ups, or short lived run downs.

He picked up one that read "The Laos Incident" and began reading. This was about a large feral werewolf incursion in the forest of Laos, already having killed a family on a picnic. A pair of augments that had just recently hunted down a Spider woman in Vietnam was the closest response group available, with reinforcements en route.

xxXxx

2004 April 7th Laos

A man in 300 pounds of armor slammed against a tree groaning in pain. His name was Griggs and he was having an admittedly bad day. This morning, he had a full contact spar with his hard-ass of a Sergeant and got his ass whooped all over the ring. Then he got thrown all across the woods in Vietnam by some crazy spider bitch. Now, here he was, being hammered by a werewolf with rabies.

Sometimes it didn't pay to get out of bed.

Quickly coming to his senses, he leaned to the right, avoiding a werewolf claw as it tore out a chunk of the tree he was leaning on. Putting both his organic and synthetic strength into a punch, he launched the flee-bitten mongrel backward into a boulder, 15ft away. Immediately, he came at it before it could recover from its migraine. The werewolf looked up only to get a flying knee to the chest, impacting it against the boulder hard enough to crack the stone. Growling, it responded by wrapping a claw around his helmet and sprinted at a tree, carrying him with it. Before it could slam his head into the trunk, he threw his body back and planted his feet into the ground, before hammering his hand into its solar plexus. The beast eased its hold and stopped, doubling over. It had forgotten or simply not cared at the time that the human had positioned himself under it. Using this as leverage, he reached around the werewolf and locked his arms around its torso. He then lifted the werewolf off its feet and threw his weight backward. The werewolf slammed face first into the dirt then rolled on its back. Griggs flipped over the wolf, and straddled its chest. Before it could think to respond, he started right and left and hooking the werewolf, feeling a few bones give under his fist. A paw walloped him across the helmet, knocking him off. He rolled into a crouch, facing the wolf.

He was in a bad spot. The thing had knocked away his rifle when it jumped him, moving too fast to come up on his motion tracker. His side arm fell from his side in a scuffle to get the youki off of him. His squad mate had been similarly ambushed and they got separated, left to fight their own battles.

The wolf rose again. Its jaw was noticeably uneven with the top of the muzzle. It reached up to grip its jaw, and sickeningly snapped it back in place.

He rested his hand on the hidden knife compartment at his ankle. The werewolf charged faster than even most of his peers. It swung wide with its right claw. He blocked left with his forearm, knowing that his augments coupled with his armor would hold up against the blow. The paw halted about 8 inches from his helmet. It then threw a fast left kick into his thigh. Grunting in pain, he grabbed the werewolf's right arm with his left, and pulled it forward into a head-butt. The youki's head snapped back and he kicked up with his own left foot, catching it in the jaw. Still softened from his punching barrage, and head-butt, the jaw broke. Turning his back to it, while still holding onto its right arm, he judo flipped the werewolf over his shoulder. Placing his feet against the side of its head and armpit, he fell on his back and pulled the werewolf's arm with all his strength. The shoulder eventually gave way and the werewolf's bone popped out of its socket.

A long painful howl echoed across the country of Laos.

xxXxx

"So brutal," The President muttered, making a face. He minimized the report and skimmed through some of the others. Searching through his computer's databanks he chanced upon another report that stood out to him. He sighed. He was so bored; he was reduced actively looking for mission reports. 2 years ago, he put off as many as he possibly could on aids so they could summarize it for him, and save a few hours of his day.

"Ah! Here's one I haven't read in a while." This report was about a recovery mission in Japan. A group of human students had been kidnapped in a direct attempt to challenge the PWCD to open combat. Needless to say, they responded with overwhelming force. As well, it was the first time a new power armored suit was tested. While not particularly maneuverable, it proved its worth.

The President squinted at screen, the names of the squad that got deployed stood out for some reason, yet he couldn't place why. Then it clicked. Grave Team. They were the most accomplished squad up to date, with 12 successful missions, all side objectives completed, and no casualties or need for replacements up to date. In one particular mission, Veltro, the most accomplished infiltrator and assassin in the program, worked alongside them to kill a 9 tailed Youko, in 4 hours of frequent combat. The president smiled, suddenly more interested in reading one of the adventures of the PWCD's most decorated squad.

xxXxx

2004 October 3rd Japan

It was an impasse. 4 Augments stood in front of the heavily guarded mansion. Standing in front of the door way was dozens upon dozens of various species of youki. Past them and into the mansion were a group of teenage hostages. The squad leader, Jacob, walked out of his cover from the surrounding trees. The squad demolition man, support gunner, and sniper were all ready to engage at a moment's notice. The squad CQC expert had already begun infiltrating the mansion. When the monsters spotted the all too famous power armor, they immediately got defensive and all of them changed into their true forms. It took Jacob every bit of his will to not raise his assault rifle up from an at ease position, to a combat one. Overhead a carrier was flying over the clouds, waiting for the green light to drop its cargo.

His yoki power meter spiked, indicating something with a vampire power level was approaching. From where he stood, a horde of monsters parted to allow a single figure passage. A blond, tanned skinned vampire wearing a sea admiral's jacket strode forward. She stopped halfway from the forest where 3 of his squad were in wait. He walked out to meet her.

"So you're one of the 'famous' super humans I was informed about." She said in a mock happy voice, with a chilling undertone of malice. Jacob decided he wasn't going to play any games.

"Release the hostages."

"My, my. Straight to the point. I like that." She replied. "Unfortunately I can't do that. You see, humans are filth. You're eye-sores in the natural order. As such we must get rid of you" She had said all that without changing the tone in her voice once. It was times like this, that it was no wonder human augments generally despised dealing with vampires in any sense that didn't involve hurting their pride.

"Well, let me give you 3 reasons why you should reconsider your stance. 1) I have a sniper in place to blow your head off. 2) I have enough weapons and men to blow everything you have to hell. And 3) I have a carrier in the air ready to drop a surprise on your mansion." Jacob stated evenly.

"Please. Like a human weapon can hurt us. The only threat humans pose is their numbers, nothing more, nothing less. How many humans did it take to siege our main headquarters? 3000 some odd humans to our several hundred?" She started "Regardless of where your army is now, it isn't here, meaning I can kill you all and leave to begin organizing another youki army, before you force arrives" Typical monster. Ignoring the idea of anything non-yoki based hurting it. Well, when in doubt…Jacob put a hand to his com link.

"Weapons free."

An 8ft tall armored figure stood up from cover, hefting a turret grade minigun. Beside him, another armored figure, who was 7ft 6, stood with an AA-12 fully automatic shotgun. These two were Avery and Jarvis, the support gunner, and demo man respectively.

The minigun whined for 1 ½ seconds before all hell broke loose.

_BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!_

**BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!**

The front row of the crowd of monsters disintegrated into shredded bodies and exploding limbs. The vampire immediately reacted, by launching a punch that could crumple a battle tank, at Jacob.

To this day she can't figure out what happened. The human lazily leaned to left, making her attack miss entirely. The next second was the feeling of a razor sharp knife entering her throat. The second after that was her chocking from her new air hole and her own blood. She fainted, and fell to the ground hearing the harsh reports of gunfire and pained screams of her youki forces.

Jacob was entirely disappointed. For all the power vampires had, they had absolutely no speed to contend with them. Werewolves were generally the only species that gave them trouble, as they could practically keep up with them, and had more strength. A vampire trying to hit an augment human was like a bull trying to trample a zigzagging squirrel. It wouldn't happen.

"Jarvis, explosive rounds!" Jacob barked, before rising up with his M16. Jarvis acknowledged, and switched drum magazines. Firing his new explosive rounds, he blew up his intended target. The front door to the mansion blew open spectacularly. Switching back to his shotgun magazine, he continued to lay into the youki. The monsters had begun to charge under fire. The biggest ones were the first to go, due to concentrated minigun fire on Avery's part. Jarvis blanketed the entire horde with shotgun pellets, varying from tiny gashes to blown off limbs depending on the monster itself. Jacob fired off his grenade launcher into an ork's head, blowing it off completely. By the time the monsters were finally within melee range there were barely 10 of them, 4 of which were wounded.

The first one, a goblin, came charging at Avery. Knowing goblins only notable feature was superior strength and hearing to a normal human, he didn't even acknowledge it. Just when it had cocked back to swing, it's head blew open, courtesy of Specter, the German sniper. 2 more youki met the same fate.

A massive troll came charging at Jarvis, topping even his massive height at a whopping 10ft tall. It swung a large meaty fist down. Jarvis easily side stepped it, as it created a massive hole in the ground. He snapped up his AA-12 and shot its knuckles. The Troll pulled back screaming, holding his now useless and bleeding right hand. Making the mistake of leaving itself open, he charged the beast and rifle butted its knee cap with everything he could muster.

CRACK!

The beast fell forward, outright roaring in agony. Jarvis rolled sideways, letting the beast fall on its side, holding the shattered knee. Before he could go to finish it, a Lizardman came screaming. Jarvis turned and side kicked the annoying creature, making it fly backwards. He turned and discharged his shotgun at the second lizardman coming up behind the first, blowing off its arm along with half its chest. The first lizardman got back up. Jarvis aimed his AA-12 at it and pulled the trigger. Click…click click click. Jarvis stared at his shotgun with an irritated expression.

"Motherfu-"

Jarvis noticed a round shadow over him and looked up. He barely dodged away in time to avoid the boulder. It probably wouldn't have killed him with his power armor on but it would've hurt like a bitch. He turned and saw the troll he had crippled, reaching for something else to throw. He heard the first lizardman charging and was finally fed up. He yanked a knife out of his shoulder sheath and hurled it at the charging lizard. With a wet thunk! It collapsed with a knife between its eyes. Jarvis replaced his spent shotgun drum with his, previously used, explosive drum.

The troll had wrapped his good hand around a tree stump and prepared to uproot and throw it.

**BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!**

The troll didn't even feel it as his heart, half his lung and a part of his intestines were blown out of his chest.

Jarvis turned to look at Avery, one of the 2 African Americans in the squad. He proudly stood over 2 dead youki, with a smoking minigun lazily being held in his left hand, and his right hand strangling a poor flailing deer-headed youki. Avery steadily tightened his grip around its throat as it thrashed. Finally it stilled, and its head rolled to the side. Giving a dis-interested grunt, Avery tossed the body to the side.

Jacob struck a goblin across the face, making it stumble backward. Giving no time for relief, he then fired his side arm into its face at point blank. The goblin fell to the ground in a heap. Placing both his M16 and M19112 away, he made the "rally on my position" signal. He retrieved his knife from the "dead" vampire along the way. They all gathered over in front of the blown open mansion doors. The team sniper faded into existence behind them, de-activating his active camouflage. His armor was slightly different from the standard set. It was less armored, for more maneuverability, and had built in goggles. Anyone looking at his helmet would see 3 inch long, gyrating eye lenses that gave him the appearance of an armored bug.

"This is Grave 1 to Houston. Houston do you copy?" Jacob radioed in the carrier.

"We copy Grave actual, this is Houston. Is the cargo given the green light?" Houston replied.

"Roger Houston, bring him in." Jacob responded.

Dipping through the clouds, a PWCD carrier flew over and hovered in place over the front of the mansion, which was now a massive grave. The hatch on the back opened while still in mid-air. Considering it was 50 ft. off the ground, everyone waited for a rope to be let down for this new unit to slide down on. No rope ever came.

Something colossal jumped out of the back, surprising the commandos. For an augmented human, it wasn't a particularly dangerous jump, but definitely not safe for someone to do willingly. When the figure landed however, that was quickly forgotten. The fact that whatever landed had actually made a large crater and displaced everything that was nearby, including bodies, was the first warning sign. The fact that when it finally stood up, it was 12 ft. in height was another warning bell. When the team finally got a good look at the new unit, they had a good idea just how dangerous it was.

What they were looking at was a walking tank. Every single inch of it was solid steel and rough edges. It was the bulkiest suit of power armor they had ever seen, looking to be 7ft wide. From the neck down, it was pure steel plating with steel nano fiber covering the joints. On its back was a large unwieldy looking power/ammo pack. In its hands was not a heavy duty machine gun, a rocket launcher, or any typical weapon. Instead it was a long rod with a trigger on the top, a hand rail in the center, and cables attached to the bottom. Lo and behold, this thing had a rail gun. Its head stood out most however. It wasn't as much a helmet as it was a large dome with no eye holes. Instead, there were 6 cameras strategically placed so that the wearer had full 360 vision. This was the V8-series 1 "Bunker Suit".

Then, whatever respect Grave team had for the behemoth had been lost, as it began waddling/stomping toward the door. Avery and Specter snickered. Jacob and Jarvis sized it up. The world war 2 Bunker with legs spoke, a speaker on its chest amplifying its voice.

"Shut up. It's hard enough to get around in this damn suit without you laughing about it."

"Well I'm going to guess you're meant to shrug off damage in that suit. That being said you have point. Make the egg heads that welded that thing together proud!" Jacob jovially stated. The man in the bunker suit grumbled and entered the mansion, the speaker making it sound like a daemon snarling. Jacob, Jarvis, Avery, and Specter went in after it. There was no hope of using stealth, as the bunker suit's steps reverberated throughout the hallways. If you didn't hear him coming, you'd feel him.

xxXxx

"Let's skim through to the good part shall we?" The president muttered. He scrolled down past all the close encounters. From what he skimmed, most of the combat on the way to the hostages was either a youki attacking the Bunker suit ineffectually due to the 3 inches of steel, between the wearer and attacker. At such point the commando unit, Grave team would step in due to the bunker suits bulk making melee in closed corridors awkward and restricting. What encounter didn't end in the suit being attacked up close was the suit spotting a youki down a hallway and shooting it, splattering the target, the wall behind the target, whatever was behind the wall, then out the side of the mansion. Needless to say, the rail gun was a little too effective.

"Ah. Here we are. The hostage encounter." The President stated before reading with interest.

xxXxx

After a long, cramped, and irritating journey through the hallways of a mansion, they came upon the main room where the teenagers were being held. The kids, 2 boys and 2 girls were bound and gagged. Surrounding them were 7 normally sized types of youki and one large Ork. The smaller 7 of the 8 all looked human with small differences like long teeth, slits for eyes, or elongated claws. The commandos and bunker suit levelled their weapons at the kidnappers. The monsters in kind placed whatever threatening weapons they had, 2 of them being guns, against the quivering teenagers.

The CQC expert, Eli, makes his debut.

A black armored figure watched the standoff from a chandelier, long brown dreadlock spilling out from under his helmet. Rather than being armed with any kind of gun, he had 2, 3ft long sabers in an 'X' shaped sheath on his back. His helmet didn't have a visor like the standard set, but 2 circular lenses instead.

He released his group and fell soundlessly. When he landed, only his squad and the bunker suit that was facing him, noticed. Eli motioned to them with the "fire on my mark" signal. He pointed toward the 2 with guns aimed at the teenagers. The 4 commandos corrected their aim toward the 5 non-singled out youki (Avery and Jarvis switched to their side arms), and the bunker suit aimed his rail gun at the growling Ork. The monsters and teenagers didn't know what was going on but had a feeling something was about to happen.

Eli flew forward with both sabers drawn.

An M16 assault rifle, 2 M19112s pistols, and a PTS-47 sniper rifle all reported at once

The rail gun reported a split second later.

The effect was immediate. 7 bodies collapsed to the floor at once. The Ork's lower half hit the ground, just before the upper half did. 4 teenagers screamed in terror, not realizing all their assailants had already died.

xxXxx

The president minimized the report and frowned. At the end of that mission, it was reported that the vampire's body was nowhere to be found. Databanks confirmed her to be Gyokuro, who was the command-in-chief of the fairy tale organization. None of this sat well with him. With S-class monsters in general, a non-confirmed kill usually meant they were still alive and preparing for a round 2. A year and 9 months later, there have still been no sightings of her. He disregarded her importance. Vampires almost always acted under their arrogance, regardless of what facts told. If she believed no human would pose a threat to her, than she would act as if the PWCD was a non-factor. The President had no problem with this. If his enemies willfully made the same mistake twice and expected a different result, he'd label them, by textbook definition, insane. He'd then remove them, and move on.

Many people would say it was a foolish idea to deploy a bunker suit to a largely CQC operation. However it served the exact purpose the president wanted. It had taken hits from every class of monster there was, save for S-class and not budged or even had a mark left. Sheer mass could knock the wearer off balance, but the suit itself was dubbed nigh-impenetrable to all forms of attacks short of taking a jet missile to the face.

The final test was to have it take a hit from a vampire and hold. Not only did the bunker suit do this, but do to it being large power armor, its strength boost translated to its size and energy output. In a later mission, one of the cameras on the helmet recorded the bunker suit catching a vampire's kick with its free hand, and throwing the offending vampire through a tree. The V8 series secured its worth, that day. And the V8 wasn't the only advancement.

A new type of artificial vision had been created.

Ectoplasmic vision. After a series of disturbances in Japan, the PWCD decided it could no longer ignore such a threat. However they couldn't see what was causing the destruction. Using all forms of vision on recordings didn't yield any results, until someone got the idea of running an ectoplasm check. After all, witches that had been encountered used ghosts in combat before. What they found surprised them. Large animals with skulls for heads, flying samurai with magic powers, and even hybrids of the 2 were all spotted using modified UAV's. One word summed up the entirety of the research division's thoughts.

What. The. Fuck.

The estimates these creatures put out were incredible. They made vampires look like annoying little gremlins. When several were found killing human civilians, unprovoked, it was unanimously decided something needed to be done. Thousands of millions of dollars poured into weapons development and new designs of power armor.

The rail gun was the only weapon that scientists confirmed from number crunching would kill, or at least severely injure the more powerful of these creatures. Destroying the brain would as well, but it would require one to be very close to get such a shot. Sonic Weaponry, Heat wave testing, and 2 new power armor designs were in process of being created to counter act the threat these creatures posed.

The youki at this point, were a non-issue, more a group in need of large scale policing rather than a threat. These creatures, however, these Hollows as recordings referred to them as, took on top priority.

The PWCD was arming for war against the Hollows, and true to human nature, they would stop at nothing to achieve victory.

The President turned off his computer and turned in for the night.

xxXxx

Author's Note: Gentlemen, Ve! Are Humans !

Seig Hien! Seig Hien!

And Ve! Vill have war !

Seig Hien! Seig Hien!

And Vi! *sniff* ...And Vi! *sniff* ACCHOO!

Cazoon tight!Cazoon tight!

Take it from me kids. Hellsing Abriged is a bad influence.

And here goes another chapter of what may very well be a glorified bashfic. And don't worry, the youki are battered but certainly not broken. One of the worst things you can do in a war is attack one enemy for a little bit, and then attack someone else without finishing the first guy off.

As well, future weapons is great inspiration for a lot of these weapons but if anyone else gets an idea of a weapon that can realistically hurt a hollow and be produced anywhere from now until 2020, please put them in. The only other alternative to monster/hollow aimed conventional warfare is flat out making the PWCD into an offshoot of the Grey Knights from Warhammer 40k (a group of psychic, power armored, daemon hunting, super soldiers). I don't want to go that route for…a lot of reasons. Many of those reasons logically and ethically based. They'd tear through hollows for sure, but in that case, I may as well just do a 40k crossover.

And to give credit where it's due, the bunker suit is inspired from the heavy class in "Killzone" 2 and 3.

Specter the German PWCD sniper is inspired from Spectre from Operation Raccon City (hey, the game may be mediocre, but the umbrella character designs are awesome!)


	4. Hard Contact

**Author's note:** I'll tell you guys right off the bat. Since hollows cause structural damage all the time in Bleach, I'm making it so anything can _feel _a hollow if it lets you get that close. They also can't forcibly remove a soul from a human. They have to kill them, _and then_ remove the soul. Rietsu based attacks are effective, due to the fact a lot of them were created with fighting hollows in mind. A human weapon CAN hurt a hollow; simply by the biting a hollow really hard hurts it (props to "Some Random Tosser" for that info). It just needs to be an anti-tank caliber weapon before it can realistically kill a menos grande. Adjuchas hollows generally need bunker busting level weapons to hurt, and building destroying weapons to kill. Vasto Lorde, Arrancar, and other high level players need direct hits from qualified WMD's (or something that screws with your organs) to kill reliably.

Note: Soul Reapers, while having the ability to harden their skin, don't actively do it like hollows do. If they get caught by a bullet they aren't expecting, it'll have the same effect it would on a normal human.

Anyways, here's the next chapter.

**Hard Contact**

2006 December 30th Japan, Sea of Japan

Gyokuro felt a lot of things at the moment.

Fury, Shame, Anger, disbelief, but chief among them was acceptance.

She had come to acknowledge that her arrogance and underestimation of the enemy led to her downfall (and _only _that).

Now she stood before the surviving commanders and leaders of Fairy Tale inside a cruise liner that served as their new base of operations. Akuha, and Kaluha, to her great relief, were among the quarter of what was their original strength. Fairy Tale had been butchered. To be fair, they never expected that they would be discovered by the humans. All their plans revolved around secrecy and selective strikes. They fought humans through guerilla warfare, not harsh crushing force. They were never prepared for a fledge attack. Humans may be weak individually, but organized and in high numbers? Well, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are all the proof one needs.

They began discussing losses and what remained of their forces. Many of their alliances and supporters had immediately cut ties, when word spread that they were under attack from humans. Only a handful of supporters remained and all of them had made it clear that should they be discovered again by Humanity, or the sponsors themselves questioned by Human agents, they would cut all ties and deny they were ever associated.

How could such a terrible loss have occurred? When that human soldier stabbed her in the throat, she was certain she would kill him. He seemed to simply be in a different position the second her hand was about to connect. She honestly believed she had simply imagined him standing to her right when he appeared at her left, but immediately killed the thought when she acknowledged that a normal human didn't have the driving force to put a blade through her neck like that.

Then, when it got to the point of discussing the actual combat, she listened a lot more keenly than before. Her commanders also told tales of humans doing ludicrous things: man-handling stronger youki, dodging bullets from their own acquired guns with ease, throwing damnable _cars_. It also came to her attention that of the humans they did see without their helmets on, all of them varied in race and nationality. There was everything from Spaniards, to Caucasians, to Africans, and so on. This was also a factor that even she admitted she felt dumb for not acknowledging. Fairy Tale planned extensively on how to take over Japan. Not once did anyone consider how humans _outside _of Japan would respond. Even the populace of china was never taken into consideration. Akuha stood up and began to speak.

"I propose we capture one of their soldiers. Since they always attack in numbers, they must lack individual fighting skill. Then we can see what makes them tick." Many of the remaining leaders agreed, though for different reasons. The idea of torturing a human, whose race had stuck a near death blow against Fairy Tale, was appeasing to most. Finding a way to give monsters these abilities appealed to others. After all, if a human could spontaneously gain abilities that put them on par with S-class monsters then surely monsters could receive the same power? When the various captains and commanders began to voice this sentiment, a new voice cut them off.

One that belonged to no one who should've been there.

"I'm sorry to inform you that it doesn't work that way."

Akuha's eye's widened. Someone had infiltrated this room without her knowing? How was that possible.

Then a dark corner in the Admiral's room fluctuated. Out of it, walked a Caucasian male with blond hair and black sunglasses.

Akuha recognized him instantly. She charged with the intent to rend him apart, regardless of what she had just said earlier. Wesker side stepped her easily. Gyokuro was upon him in an instant. Right before she came within striking range however…

_**BANG!**_

Gyokruo cried out, more in surprise than pain, when a .50 AE round tore a gaping hole in her shoulder. She kept going due to her momentum, and slid to a stop against the door. Akuha was up and ready when a hand wrapped around her throat. Before she could move in response, a second shot was fired into her abdomen at point blank.

_**BANG!**_

"Aaahh!" Akuha screamed. She clutched her bleeding stomach. The hand still clenched around her neck, took advantage of her weakened state and threw her at Gyokuro, who was still off balance from her own bullet wound. Both vampire women smacked against the metal wall.

The other commanders had gotten up ready to fight while Kahlua had already charged at him. He maneuvered, himself behind her, kicking her right leg out from under her. She looked up to see a Desert Eagle pointed at her head. A third shot reported.

_**BANG!**_

Her ears bled. Human ears weren't very acute, but a Desert Eagle fired so close to human ears would have likely deafened them. Such a shot fired directly into the celling wasn't as blaring but definitely enough to give her ear drums a little more than a "love tap".

The monsters all stopped.

"Good. It would seem I have the attention I originally wanted to have."

Akuha looked up, glaring. She couldn't stand up straight due to the steadily closing, yet profusely bleeding, hole in her chest. "You! You're one of the Humans that killed Alucard!" She yelled.

The room stopped cold. While it was large monster news, and common knowledge that Alucard had been assassinated by a group of snipers, it was never stated that a human had done it (the vampires had much to do with that particular "information lapse"). Wesker smiled. Akuha could care less about species pride at that point. All she wanted at the moment, was his death.

"I'm glad you remembered me after all these years. However I didn't come here to kill any of you, unless you give me a reason to of course." Wesker smirked. Gyokuro's wound had finally closed up and forced the bullet out. She walked forward. She was cautious of humans ever since the incident at the mansion. She still hated them of course. She had simply come to respect that they had the _potential_ to hurt her. With this human wearing a trench coat and several visible straps at the coats opening, she knew he was armed with more than just the Desert Eagle. She glared at him through his sun glasses, letting her daemonic aura wash over everything in the room as a way to intimidate him. Wesker didn't even notice. He wasn't a youki and therefore didn't have the ability to sense daemonic auras. Judging by the reaction of everyone in the room however, she seemed to have quite the power level. Too bad he could remove that with the simple pull of a trigger.

"You must be very brave to come aboard this ship by yourself _human_, and what did you mean earlier?" She stated, with a frown on her face. Wesker never dropped his smirk once, since he appeared.

"To answer you in order, I'm not brave, just assured in what I can and can't do. I may be the only human _on_ this ship, but that can quickly change." He emphasized the word "on" suggestively. "And what I meant was we gained our super human abilities purely through brain power. Human brains only use a fraction of their actual capability, something youki can't say. We simply found a way to get more use out of it than can be considered normal." He half lied. He pointedly forgot to say that body augments were also a must to keep up with the newfound brain power.

"Why are you here." Akuha growled. The other monsters began to encircle him. Wesker never lost his smirk.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm to be an "ambassador" on behalf of the Paranormal Warfare Contingency and Defense program. PWCD for short."

A human ambassador? Many of the youki in the room chuckled darkly. Wesker held back a sigh. They really thought they were in control.

"What makes you think we'd listen to what you have to say little human?" Gyokuro stated, her pride in full effect. The "little" was meant to emphasize how inferior he was to her. With him surrounded, she was certain he wouldn't get away. Then he could be repaid for the gunshot wound he inflicted on her and her daughter.

"Because." He stated simply. "If you refuse, this ship will be fired on and sunken in the middle of the ocean with no one to witness."

Many monsters lost their cool just then. Wesker continued.

"We don't know why you monsters keep antagonizing humans, but we intend to stop it. We prefer the peaceful way, with happy singing, and hands held together. Or if you prefer, no interaction at all and complete separation and segregation." He paused for affect. "But if you say no, and continue to threaten humans, we will storm across the youki world and ensure that any monster who so much as speaks against us won't be left standing."

"As President Roosevelt once said "talk softly, and carry a big stick"," Wesker finished.

Gyokuro, for the first time in her life, was unsure.

The humans, monstrous and evil beings, infamous for their brutality and genocidal ways, had offered peace. But what if they were lying?

"How can I be sure you aren't lying?" The Shuzen asked in a deadly tone. "Or that you're bluffing?"

"If I came with the intent to kill you all to begin with, I wouldn't have bothered coming aboard. I would've simply given the order to fire, and then be on my way." Wesker flatly stated. Then his tone turned deadly with a smirk still on his face. "And, humanity has the power to kill each other in the millions, wipe entire countries off the map at a whim, and potentially destroy the entire planet, should the two dominant human super powers go to nuclear war."

He paused and took off his glasses, starring at Gyokuro with red irises. "Do you really doubt my ability to destroy a single raggedy ship such as this?"

The monsters in the room suddenly got very antsy. There was an obvious test of will against will going on right now.

"Though, I'm curious. Gyokuro was it?" Her eyes widened for a second at him knowing her name. "What made your organization get the crazy idea it could destroy humanity?"

Every monster in the room released their aura as they all glared and growled at the blatant insult. None of them quite yet realized he couldn't feel an ounce of that aura.

"How dare you-" Akuha started before she was cut off.

"I dare, because while we raided and attacked your bases we figured out your so called plan. Please tell me, why is it when I read your plans over I always get the impression you think all of humanity is located in Japan alone?"

No one said anything. Wesker took that as an incentive to continue.

"Also why do none of your plans incorporate the blatant fact that the other humans will start attacking?" He stated. "There are only 127 million humans in Japan. There are 6 billion humans across the planet, and we're estimated to be at 7 billion by 2012, in 6 years. Did you honestly expect the other 6.4 billion humans remaining _not _to retaliate with the complete genocide of every youki we could find, regardless of whether or not they opposed humanity?"

"We'd fight our way through them to-" A commander started.

"'Fight your way'? How do you think humans fight? We simply run at you in massive screaming hordes?" Wesker chuckled. "Oh no. We would've covered up the sun in hundreds of aircraft. The sea, as far as your eye can see would've been filled with warships, carrying the military of every super power in this hemisphere. Every youki standing in the open would've been gunned down, or had high explosive rain down on their head. Each and every inch of Japan would be bombed into a crater then assaulted by hundreds of armed, trained, and war machine supported humans. Then, when the PWCD informs them of how to enter the monster world… well the holocaust in Germany, over 50 years ago would seem tame in comparison to what 6 billion royally pissed off humans would do. And to put thing in perspective, this wouldn't just be happening in Japan. This would occur all across the world with armies of the same if not larger size in different areas of the world. Whatever monsters inhabit the world would be hunted in a mass genocide. That would be the aftermath result of you succeeding in your mission to purge "all" human life. Now do you understand?"

The room was silent.

No one had ever thought of any consequences past what would happen in Japan. To the youki, Japan was isolated and cut off from the world. No one would care if Japan came under new management. It wasn't like humans liked each other all that much.

The vampires of the room remained quiet. Vampires don't usually leave their territory, but they are educated in basic human education to be knowledgeable about what goes on. However, unlike humans they aren't constantly attached to the media for information and therefore never keep up with humanities progress. As far as Japanese vampires are concerned, humanity was still in its revolution age, warfare wise, since no recent armed conflict ever touched Japan aside from atomic bombs, which were quickly assumed by monsters to be the aftermath of large human battle rather than an actual weapon.

"Now about our peace offer?"

"LIES! ALL LIES! Humans are weak mongrels! Nothing more!" A werewolf commander had finally snapped. She _refused_ to believe a human could do something a youki couldn't do better.

She sped forward with her hand cocked back. Wesker disappeared and re-appeared, leaning against the door with a smirk and his glasses back on. She slid to a stop and prepared to charge again. Wesker appeared in front of her with his leg raised. He stomped down on her kneecap, and it bent backward, a sickening crack ringing out the room. She collapsed, screaming in agony. Its knee was bent backward; looking like it was curling upward. Wesker aimed his Desert Eagle down at her. The werewolf looked up with tears of pain in her eyes. Wesker glared down and began to squeeze the trigger mechanism.

"STOP!" Kaluha shouted.

Wesker glanced at her with an eyebrow raised.

"You've won. You're prepared to kill dozens of thousands of innocent youki because of us!" She shouted, taking Wesker aback. He wasn't the only one as the whole room was surprised.

She continued.

"Yes, I think it's evil to kill millions of humans over something as simple as race, but if you kill her in cold blood, as well as punish the rest of youki for _our_ actions, you'll be no better!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Whoever told you I thought I was better? I know I'm more a killer than anyone else in this room. Now will you agree to peace, or should I give the all clear to open fire?" Wesker stated.

"Fine human." Gyokuro dead panned.

Her pride sunk as the words left her mouth. Of course the human was obviously exaggerating the extent of damage humanity would cause for psychological effect, but regardless of whether they came in the hundred thousands or billions, the end result would be the same. Monster kind simply was too outnumbered and outgunned to put up any semblance of a real war against humans. Terrorist attacks had remained effective but with the PWCD effectively uprooting them in counter-terrorist attacks, they stood no chance. It was hard enough to unite as much of monster kind as they did with Fairy Tale. They'd have to repeat that effect across the planet to have any real potency. She'd simply bid her time and wait until a chance revealed itself. Then she'd strike fast to exterminate humanity, before they exterminated the youki race.

"I accept your offer." She stated, trying consciously to look as disappointed as possible.

xxXxx

2007 January 3rd Africa, Sahara

A gargantua tore open above the Sahara desert approximately 2 hours ago. It had allowed a pack of 15 menos class hollows and oddly enough an adjuchas class leading them, into the real world. They had annihilated a small village in the desert and left nothing but ravaged bodies and soulless husks.

The PWCD had sent 3 Njal storm-carriers along with 2 F-22 Raptors to send them packing before any further damage was caused.

Each carrier carried a cargo of 1 Bunker suit with the newly designed sonic cannons, and 3 new designs of suits.

These were affectionately called Terminator suits. Once donned and turned on, it stood at 12ft. in height. It had a straight forward appearance with reinforced titanium armor, and steel fiber weaving in the joints. It wasn't as potent as the Bunker suit but would laugh at most anti-tank weapons. The head and torso was one large section where the helmet was eclipsed by the back armor like a steel hood. The helmet looked vaguely similar to a rhino's head without a horn or a mouth. In the right hand was a large double barreled anti-tank weapon in the form of an SMG. It fired bullets the size of a shoe at semi and fully-automatic speed. It penetrated and exploded with a devastating concussive explosion. Its left hand was an asymmetrically large fist with force reactants built into the fists. When it connected even a semi hard blow, the energy fist itself caused a blast of radiation and heat waves to explode outward. The force of this was so powerful that a terminator struck a test car in its bumper, and not only did the car practically implode in on itself, but it shot backward _through_ the 2 feet thick concrete wall that was 27 meters away.

This totaled to 3 Bunker suits with sonic weapons, and 9 Terminator suits, with air support.

"**Landing zone spotted. Prepare for landing. Activate ectoplasmic vision." **The harsh voice of the Terminator Sergeant barked.

"**Affirmative. Calibrations set."** The resident bunker suit operator responded. The others set their vision. It wouldn't do, to get into combat with something you can't see.

"This is Echo, we've reached our dropped point. Yall ready to go?"

"**Ready." **Sergeant called back.

"Give them hell people!"

The pilot responded before dropping the bottom hatch from directly beneath their feet. They had run simulations, and test missions dozens of times. Any fear of height was long gone. Their shock absorbers could take 3 times this height with little trouble.

The hollows looked up, hearing engine rotors echo through the empty desert. They entertained the idea of chasing the aircraft but they were moving far too fast to be caught. What they did notice were 12 speeding dots hurdling to the ground.

"What are those?" A menos asked in confusion.

"I don't know, but I sense they have souls!"

Just then they all hit the ground, causing craters and dust to kick up from the sand. When it cleared the hollows were fairly surprised. There stood 12 black armored figures of large size. The closest was a comparatively short figure, holding a steel metal like object with wires running to its back. Using its 360 vision, it spotted the closest target.

The closest hollow was a monkey hollow with a gorilla's skull.

"**Target sighted"** The bunker suit aimed its sonic cannon at the simian. **"Neutralizing."**

It jammed down the trigger and the effect was immediate. Against test dummies, sonic weaponry obliterated them. Cars exploded in a shower of glass and pressure, sending shrapnel everywhere. Against, a hollow the effect was far more…interesting.

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

The hollow howled in pain and clamped its ears, then collapsed. It began fidgeting on the ground, seemingly choking on its own voice. Blood started powering out its mouth. The amps had turned its insides to mush; the sound busted its ear drums and severely damaged its brain. Its eye balls blew out and its lungs imploded. Sonic weapons were _definitely _effective against hollows.

"**Neutralized."**

"Those humans killed Agnis! Kill them and eat them alive!" The Adjuchas bellowed to its underlings. The Terminator and Bunker suits responded.

"**Engage at will." **The Sergeant counter ordered to his squad mates.

Chaos was the only word to describe what followed. Weak cero's and gunfire exchanged in large volleys.

A human like hollow barreled into a terminator suit, expecting to bowl it over. Instead the soldier slid backward roughly 5ft before halting. The hollow stopped, shocked. It didn't get a chance to speak as an inhumanely large hand clamped around its skull. The force reactive plates in the palm and finger areas activated, and the hollows head imploded within the Terminator's fist. For good measure, he let go and kicked it away, sending the headless body crashing against the side of a mountain.

The other Terminators fired with their double barreled weapons into the approaching hollows. Menos class hollows lacked the natural armor the larger and stronger classes had. The result for most of them was their bodies exploding in gore before closing the distance. A smarter menos hollow latched onto a terminators back and swung a sickle arm through the fiber padded joint. The operator screamed as his right arm was cut off from the elbow. The terminator responded by yelling and flailing with its left arm. Fighting through the pain, he blocked the charge from another, bull like hollow with his large fist. He punched it in the forehead, sending it back with 3rd degree burns and a badly cracked hollow mask. The hollow on its back, went to cleave the terminator's other arm off.

_**BOOM!BOOM!BOOM! **_

The hollow on the injured human's back exploded in a shower of blood and bones. Another terminator stood next to his injured squad mate with a smoking double barreled SMG. His ally nodded thanks before collapsing from blood loss.

"**Tai is down. Repeat. Man down" **The terminator alerted before an infuriated bull hollow with a cracked mask charged his way. He leveled rocket propelled SMG at it and gun thundered twice. The bull fell with half its head gone.

Suddenly a cold feeling washed over all the combatants. Their suits protected them from the physical effects of rietsu but that was it. Looking up, the suits spotted a fox like adjuchas stared down with disdain at the humans. His weak followers were annihilated in exchange for killing 2 humans and wounding another to the point of unconsciousness. It was time he step in.

He charged a cero.

"**Massive energy build up! Bunker suits, take it down."** The Sergeant ordered

Nodding, the 3 unscathed bunker suits all aimed their sonic cannons at the adjuchas and fired. The affect was immediate. The adjuchas lost hold of its cero and it discharged to the side, missing the humans by a large margin. Adjuchas hollows were made of thicker stuff than a menos, literally. The amps reverberated through its body, causing its blood vessels, eardrums, and nerves to explode. Its organs ruptured, and it barred its teeth so hard it bit of a piece of its own tongue. Despite all the damage being caused to it, it refused to die. It was incapable of much else however.

"**This is Knight actual to predator, do you copy?" **

"We copy, waiting for coordinates."

"**We have the leading hollow pinned down. Fire on where I've painted the target."**

"Copy we see it. Bombs away."

2 F-22 raptors flew across the desert. Once they were given the "go ahead", they dipped down. Flying relatively slow and low, they fired 2 missiles each at the target marker. 4 missiles in total screamed toward their mark. Designed, specifically to destroy tanks and buildings alike, the bombs aimed true. The adjuchas hollow was unable to hear or feel anything as the missiles streaked toward him. With its ears gone and it slowly drowning in its own blood, it never had a chance to acknowledge, much less dodge the new threat. The first missile blasted it off its feet and out of the sound streams, and had taken one of its legs. The second missile blew off its chest and head entirely, the other 2 were just overkill. Scattered chunks were all that remained of the high level hollow.

"Did we hit the target knight actual?"

"**Affirmative. Good kill. Thanks for the assist."**

"Anytime. Predator, over and out."

"**Echo, we need pick up. We have wounded and dead."**

"Those things managed to kill someone with armor like _that_. Christ." The pilot muttered.

"**They can die by conventional means. They now have every right to fear us as we do them."**

"Roger, ETA 5 minutes, sit tight."

Unbeknownst to anyone, a shinigami stood in the air, watching the battle. This one bore the insignia of the stealth division.

xxXxx

2007 June 30th Undisclosed location in japan 

The Director for the weapons development division sighed as he read the report.

All the fallen equipment had been recovered, but 2 dead and 1 in need of a prosthetic? For the first deployment, he expected his terminator suits to perform much better. After watching the videos however he found the problem. The terminators acted as mobile gun emplacements, which they were sufficiently armed for. However they weren't very good in close quarters combat. As well, there weapons were unnecessary overkill. Civilian grade side arms could pierce a menos class skin just as easily as a human's skin. Bringing rocket propelled SMG's was simply a waste of resources. The armor worked fine, but the weapons used were all wrong. If they were to fight hollows like this, the PWCD would need weapons specialized for fighting hollows in close quarters. The Terminator fist was greatly effective but unwieldy against anything with the ability to maneuver. If they could reshape the Terminator fist into a weapon more controllable, like a sword or a…hammer -_that's it!_

He forwarded an idea to the president. A variant of the terminator armor specialized for close combat. "Assault Terminators" he dubbed them. He liked the sound of that.

"Hello good sir!" The director spun around in surprise. In front of him, was an odd man. He wore a suit that had been loosened for comfort. And a strangely worn, white and green stripped hat. "I hear you're the director of this fine establishment."

"Who are you and why aren't you wearing your uniform or name tag?" The director asked suspiciously. He reached under his desk for a button.

"I'm a simple shopkeeper looking for an employment opportunity!" He beamed. The director pressed the button. In less than a minute, augment security soldiers would be here to take this man in for questioning on how he got here. This place was more secure and hidden than area 51 for Christ sake!

"How'd you get here?" The director demanded.

"Front door." The man shrugged. "But anyway, I came here to help you and your company with my services."

"Services? What can you offer?" Director asked for the sake of stalling him.

"Insight on your hollow problem for one." He smirked. The director's eye's widened.

Before anything else could be said 2 large 7ft. guards wearing military fatigues stormed the room with handguns raised.

"FREEZE! Put your hands up and turn around slowly!"

"Oh? Well I guess, I won't be able to work here after all." He huffed. He he turned around and began walking, casually ignoring the armed soldier's demands. Before the guards could move to subdue him, the director called out.

"Wait! Guards stand down and wait outside." The odd man smiled even wider. The director already knew he wouldn't like this guy.

"So does this mean I get the job?"

"Who are you." The director growled.

"Urahara Kisuke. Nice to make your acquaintance."

xxXxx

**Authors note: **Before I get my head bit off about how unrealistically advanced the humans are, understand this. With the exception of the Terminator fist, and augment surgery, everything in this story already exists in real life, or it's confirmed that it will exist in the near future. The PWCD simply uses different applications for them. The reason power armor, and _lethal _sonic weapons don't exist is because there's never been a need for them. Why invest millions to make a weapon that kills a single person with sound when a thousand dollar sniper rifle will do the same job for cheaper? We _can_ create a person who is more or less wearing tank armor, but why invest in that when we can just make a tank?

We've always had the weapons I'm showing, just never had a reason to use them in place of what was already being mass produced. If you ever watched the new incredible hulk movie (not really new but you know what I mean), then you'll remember a scene where 2 jeeps fired sound waves at the hulk and stopped him cold. Those exist in real life as emergency riot control weapons. Another one exists just like it that actually shoots heat rays rather than sound waves. I simply took those and powered it to a lethal level.


	5. The Directors coming Look busy

Author's note: As a form of foreshadowing, watch this youtube video to gleam the newest weapon in the PWCD arsenal.

watch?v=T-fkiFu3c8I

As well, since I always miss somebody or forget something important when making these, I'll just respond to any questions, individually. Now sit back relax and watch the carnage.

xxXxx

**The Directors coming. Look busy.**

2008 january 4th Japan

For once in Grimmjow's life, he wasn't too happy to be in a fight.

He had launched an attack with all his fraccion on the real world. They entered from the far north of the city and started flying. The intent was for them to cause a ruckus while he fought Ichigo. True to the saying, however, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

Regardless of whether or not you knew they were your enemy to begin with.

D-Roy and Shawlong were killed first. A pair of fighter planes made a pass, and according to science, anti-tank missiles moving faster than the speed of sound, cut through an arrancar's hierro like butter. They returned fire in the form of ceros and balas but the planes proved too fast and engaged from too far away to hit.

The planes turned for another pass. Nakim teleported to the planes altitude and began firing balas as fast as possible. Of course, super human abilities or not, trying to hit an object currently moving at Mach 1.5 was about as effective as a normal human trying to hit a fired bullet with a fly swatter. The plane flew by, unperturbed.

Nakim clutched his ears, screaming.

The jet flew so fast it caused a sonic boom to go off when it passed. His eardrums shattered at the violently high noise.

"Predator 1, this is predator 2. I'm on low fuel over."

"Roger we'll try to clean this up in 2 more passings."

The fighter planes had been there with ectoplasmic screens to constantly monitor this area for activity. The PWCD had mysteriously acquired what was called "rietsu radars" from an unknown benefactor in league with the organization. Given this tech, they placed sensors across the globe, (with consent from the respective countries of course). Areas that spotted normal menos class hollows had either augment squads or skilled individuals remove them. Hollows of Gillian class or higher had terminator H&K (hunter/killer) teams sent. They had yet to spot a vasto lorde class. Areas of abnormally high hollow concentration had regular, country registered plane flights for aerial scanning, and if need be attack units. After sighting an anomaly, they passed to investigate. Rietsu scanners immediately painted them each as far above adjuchas class. They were given permission to engage.

"Damnit! Get to the ground! We can't fight these things!" Grimmjow bellowed.

He and his subordinates quickly sonido'd to the bare forested ground.

All but one.

Nakim was still deafened by the sonic boom and didn't hear Grimmjow. The planes came back around for another pass but discovered all the contacts had disappeared save for one. While initially confused, they assumed the others had fled and this one was still up for a fight. Shrugging to themselves they opened fire on the deafened arrancar. He quickly sonido'd away but, these missile were made to hunt vehicles moving faster than the speed of sound. Sonido can only teleport someone at exactly the speed of sound. The missiles inevitably caught up with him. An explosion confirmed the kill.

"Targets sighted. Ground side." Predator 1 stated. 3 blips were on his rietsu scanner.

"Roger. Coming in for a carpet bomb." Predator 2 droned.

Grimmjow grimaced. He had lost 3 fraccion to damnable metal birds! Neither he, nor his fraccion had the slightest idea what a jet fighter was, but they learned not to mess with one in its domain.

"They're coming back!" Edorad yelled.

A single plane dropped a single bomb on the area.

This in turn, broke apart into hundreds of separate bombs.

Grimmjow's eyes widened and he thought fast. He jabbed his hand out in front of him and opened a gargantua. He and his 2 remaining fraccion leapt through. They left before they even had a chance to realize the bombs were only affective against normal hollows and humans who were in large numbers. Their hierro would've easily shrugged off those as opposed to fighter missiles. The area subsequently erupting in explosions did little to sway them to test that theory.

xxXxx

2008 January 6th Japan, undisclosed location

"So how goes production, Mr. Director?" Urahara politely asked.

"Don't call me that." The weapons development director stated.

"Can I have you real name then?"

"Classified."

"Well then, Mr. Director it is."

He sighed.

"Anyway, about production."

"Damn it, just walk with me."

They walked into a recording room. Various people in lab coats were manning computers or writing down on a clipboard. In front of them was a glass where a manned and operational terminator suit stood. It had 2 normal hands with no weapons occupying either. In front of it, on a sturdy table laid a double sided hammer whose hammer head throbbed with neon blue energy and limited electricity.

"For the record, I still don't like melding technology and this magic of yours. Some things were meant to be kept separate."

"Magic isn't as unpredictable as you think Mr. Director. It has a science all on its own. I helped create these hammers in the event you had to fight high level hollows above adjuchas level, on the ground."

"I know that but we-"

"And you didn't have the luxury to simply bomb it to oblivion."

"We always have that luxury."

"Oh really? Then what if you fight a hollow inside a populated city? I'm sure a bomb going off a few blokes down from a neighborhood is going to be easily explained. A hammer burst is easier to hide."

"Your ilk doesn't seem terribly concerned for such things in hollow fights." Urahara had written a report, with ample proof, of everything. Soul Society, hollows, Gotei 13 and so on were all covered.

"Oh right, because soul reapers are perfectly capable of leaving an apology note on every crater we leave." The shinigami retorted.

"Anyway, here's the new close quarters weapon you insisted we redesign to your specifications."

"The one's you intended to use would've been shrugged off by a powerful fighter." The director igored him and began introductions.

"The "Thunder Hammer" as it were called. It uses an energy cell inside the hammerhead that collects energy and electricity and discharges it back out. Using your magic or "new science" as you phrased, its nigh indestructible. It will also parry, or more accurately, "repel" anything that makes contact with the hammerhead without the hammer itself taking any damage or wearing down. Due to weight issues, only terminator suits can properly wield them and even then, they use it as a 2 handed weapon."

"Didn't you have a single operative that could wield this hammer as easily as a normal human wields a bow staff?"

"You mean Yuri Boyka? Yes. He was given his own due to how devastatingly effective he was with it. Why?"

"I may not be anywhere near high enough in the food chain to make a serious recommendation, but you should have him lead all your major hollow attacks from now on. He could fight some of seireitei's best and win."

"You mean the supposed demi-gods that lord over the Gotei 13?"

"Yep."

xxXxx

2008 January 4th Anartica

A normal menos class hollow, which appeared as a skull wearing polar bear, knew it was having a bad day when a human smacked it against the side of a glacier.

"In Russia, I kill bear 3 TIMES YOUR SIZE!"

Definitley a bad day.

2 more Hollows charged Yuri from behind. Glancing backward he turned and swung in a large arc down. The hammer shot its energy outward and the 2 hollows sailed backward into the snow, shocked to their core. A 4th hollow came charging, and cleaved down with one of 2 large claws. Yuri turned and did an underhand swing, to meet the claws. The hammer shattered every bone in the hollows hand and electrocuted it. Yuri continued with his assault. He charged and smacked the hollows left knee cap with his hammer. The entire leg blew off in pure concussive and electric force, making the hollow flail to the ground screaming and twitching. Yuri removed his side arm and shot the beast through its eye hole, blowing a hole in its brain.

The 2 hollows came again. Yuri dunked under the first hollow and used his hammer as a spear to jab the second hollow in the chest. The force of the impact collapsed the hollows chest cavity, killing it instantly. He swung backward and connected against the first hollows back. This snapped its spine, and made it bend over backward. The hollows were dead before they hit the ground. The Bear hollow fired a cero at him. Using his bullet dodging speed, he side stepped to the left. He dropped his hammer and ripped from out his sheath a vicious looking hunting knife that was 1 foot in length.

He charged the bear hollow with the ferocity only the angry Russian could have.

He tackled the hollow to the ground, and forced its head back by bracing his forearm under the hollow's chin. He reared his other hand back and drove the knife into the beast's neck. The creature struggled briefly and finally stilled. Yuri wasn't done however. He raised the knife high a cleaved down.

He walked to the edge of the cliff with a bloody knife in one hand and a hollow's head in the other. He raised both in the air and released a bestial roar.

He heard a whine a spun around. Cowering behind him was another hollow that had watched with fear in its eyes.

Yuri glanced at his newly procured bear heard trophy and tossed it over by his thunder hammer. He locked eyes with the hollow; well as well as digital goggle lenses and a pair of eyes could connect. The hollow took a brave step forward.

Yuri whipped out his hand gun shot a hollow that tried to sneak up on him dead in the eye socket. It crumpled to the ground. The original hollow hesitated.

Yuri put away his hand gun and charged.

A bloody knife cleaved down before the hollow had even blinked.

xxXxx

"I know things. Let's leave it at that." Urahara stated.

"Anyway, about our test." The Director continued.

He walked over to a console and microphone. He pressed down a black button and spoke.

"You may begin when ready." The director informed.

The terminator nodded once and reached for the hammer on the table. The operator of the terminator hefted it up, and swung it a little. After he got fairly comfortable and began swinging the hammer in a more advanced manor, treating it more like a staff rather than possibly the most dangerous blunt force weapon known to man. He spun the hammer in the air and caught it. He stepped into a battle ready stance and declared he was ready.

A truck came speeding down the tunnel. Magnets on either side of the wall served to accelerate the car in a massive rail gun. The vacant truck came straight toward the terminator. In response, he brought his hammer slightly farther back. The car came within 10ft. at 80mph.

The terminator suit swung.

The hammerhead made contact with the truck bumper. For a single millisecond the car folded in on itself. Then the energy cell reacted to the contact. The force of brute strength, energy waves, and thermal energy fought against inertia and momentum. The 2 ton truck folded into half its original length before shooting backward. Despite the magnets pushing it forward, it continued to travel backward. It finally slowed down into a roll. The magnets in the wall rolled the truck back toward the terminator suit. The ball of steel, that was once a vehicle, picked up speed. The terminator reared his hammer back again.

He swung a second time.

The ball of steel shattered into pieces and scraps. Several scraps were shot forward by the magnets but lazily bounced off his armor.

"Impressive. Not even Vasto Lorde class hollow could take one of those to the face and still be standing."

"These hollows are becoming a real problem. Their attacks are becoming more and more frequent every year." The director stated darkly.

"Blame that on Aizen. He's stirring the hollows into a frenzy. Not all of them quite realize it's the soul reapers they're supposed to be uniting against." Urahara smiled then. "However, your forces are more than sufficient in removing them."

"Tell me Urahara. From what you've explained, Soul Society would attack us in an instance for finding out that we've been killing these hollows. Why do you have no qualms about it?" The director asked. Kisuke sighed a bit.

"Well, despite what they say, there is no "real" way to keep the balance. I doubt it's even possible. Hollows kill each other far more often than the PWCD and Soul Society combined do. None of those souls are reincarnated. They simply die. At least with bullets it's a relatively harmless and immediate death. With hollows, they drain the soul dry and absorb it. I don't think killing them with bullets could possibly do any more harm to them then they do to themselves."

"Yet if we decided to launch nuclear weapons in Hueco Mundo…"

"It would mean a three way war for certain. Aizen would likely survive and rally his forces to attack. If not him than one of his subordinates will rally the hollows. Soul Society would attack. The youki are likely to bite you in the heels while you have your hands full. The world would dissolve into a 4 way free for all. A war where even slain soldiers will continue to fight. People killed sometimes still have their past memories or they'll remember if they see something they recognize. This would cause many of the souls in soul society that were loyal to humanity to rise against the soul reapers. Youki souls may fight against human souls. The number of possibilities, weapons, and factors to be employed will be endless. Number of casulties, deaths and destroyed souls would be enormous. Nothing would ever be the same if such a war did end."

"The same results would come from an assault on humanity by Hollows or Soul Reapers. Humans aren't the type accept attacks and not respond in kind. Does Soul Society know this?"

"No. They don't." Urahara frowned. "And from what you told me, it would literally be effortless for the PWCD to unite all of humanity against another, non-human enemy." The director had taken the liberty of informing Urahara where these funds come from, what (openly known) emergency plans they had in place.

"By the way. I've forwarded your request to the PWCD President. He's willing to meet you and negotiate the finnier terms of your…employment." Urahara beamed.

"Wonderful! I'll get my suit from the cleaners! I'm so excited! I get to meet the big boss!" The director sweat dropped. One of the guards standing nearby leaned in.

"Sir…is he gay?"

"I think so soldier. I really do."

"Oh yeah. About our recent conversation, I'd like to forward that information to the big man ahead of time. You wouldn't mind typing a report up for him would you?" The ex-soul reaper asked.

The director zeroed in on one of his aids. "You." A mixed woman of Asian descent turned around. "Hollows, Soul Reapers, Youki, Humans, four way war. I need a report written and on my desk in 3 days." The aide was left stuttering in surprise.

"but-but-but."

"There's a raise in it for you."

"I'll get it done sir!" She said with greedy smile on her face.

Urahara raised an eyebrow. "I wish I could've gotten away with that back in Soul Society." He muttered.

"Anything else?"

"Yes. I need a list of your 5 most capable operatives, and 5 suits of power armor suits delivered to my personal lab 3 floors down from here." The director was glad he hadn't brought his cup of water to his lips just yet.

"What? Why?"

"I plan on negotiating with the Gotei 13. I need a group of soldiers that can reliably defend me from any attack and act as a bodyguard."

"I'm a weapons director. If you plan on getting actual personnel involved, take that up with the President and the Defense Marshal."

"Well then would you please add that to the report you send?"

"You again." The mixed woman turned again, this time annoyed. "Add a request for our 5 best into that report."

"Listen you lazy-"

"Double pay."

"Would like anything else?"

"No that's all for today."

Urahara looked on in jealousy. The mountains of paper work he could've avoided…

xxXxx

=8=8=8=8=

Dossier: Albert Wesker; fearless, efficient, never caught unaware, proficient in any form of combat.

Notes: Albert Wesker is the most ruthless member of the PWCD. He has only ever gone into combat with power armor one time.

Romania

Ghouls were loyal to the vampire who created them, generally. When Dracula died, his Ghouls were devastated and lost. They had gathered and planned to massacre every human in the city they found, as tribute to Dracula. Imagine their surprise, when one of dracula's killers entered the mansion that once belonged to Dracula, saying he was one of the shooters that killed him. Enraged, bloodthirsty, and vengeful, they attacked.

Wesker, clad in his power armor, rolled his shoulders.

12 ghouls, 15 minutes until reinforcements.

Wesker loved a challenge.

The first ghoul found a barrel shoved into its throat. A millisecond later, there was a hole in his neck.

The second and third ghouls were both shot in the head.

The fifth ghoul felt 5 fingers press against his throat and clamp down. His wind pipe was crushed.

The Sixth, seventh, and, eighth ghouls all had their throats slit before they could see their assailant.

The last 4 huddled together in a defensive circle, fear evident in their eyes. Wesker appeared before them and fired his handguns until both clicked empty.

Albert met his reinforcements at the insertion point and reportedly said "I'm not gonna use power armor anymore. Makes it too easy."

=8=8=8=8=

Dossier: Veltro; Relentless, skilled assassin, hyper-lethal, hostile, predatory mindset.

Notes: Has never missed a target marked for assassination in his 30 year long career, regardless of species, location, or defenses.

Cambodia

A vampire fled. Monsters believed such a thing to be impossible but humanity new better. Everyone had a fear. For vampire's, it was the threat of death, in any form.

What she ran from was surely death himself.

A human murdering your mother father and older brother all before they could respond was a just cause for anything to flee. Her family had been supporting, and on occasion, housing Fairy Tale operatives. The last group to come in claimed they were being hunted by a human who had killed half their number already. There were 20 of them, and all fairly powerful by youki standards. Her father laughed and mockingly claimed he would defend them from any so called "human boogeymen".

The next day, the large shed he let them sleep in was filled with dead bodies. All of them died in their sleep.

Then her dad never awoke, the next day. When turned over, there was a stab wound and a blood stain on his chest, where his heart should be.

When arguing over what to do in response to the killings, an air shimmer appeared before them. Then her mom and brother stilled before clutching their own, now bleeding chests. They fell over and bleed out on the floor.

She ran, as hard as she could, believing whatever killed them had no ranged weapons, and thus had to run her down to get her.

A single gunshot range out.

Not a single youki left that mansion alive.

=8=8=8=8=

Dossier: Javier; violent, unstable, destructive, potential liability

Notes: holds a vendetta against all non-humans, regardless of whether or not they used to be human.

Japan

Members of fairy tale cowered inside the casino. They had heard screaming, gunshots, and the word "human."

The tables in the all monster Casino were all turned over made into makeshift cover. Every fire arm, throwing weapon, or ranged youki power was aimed at the large front door.

Imagine their surprise when the left wall had a gaping hole blown into it.

An augment marched in with a massive, high powered grenade launcher. His helmet had a large dome like visor with a grinning skull carved into the facial area. He grabbed a monster that had been dazed by the explosion, not caring whether or not it had any affiliation with fairy tale, and held it in front of him as a living shield.

Bullets, demon energy based attacks, and knives were hurled at the man. His bullet proof armor shrugged off what didn't hit his screaming meat shield. He returned fire and blew out a chunk of the bar that 8 monsters were hiding behind. He fired again, at a collection of pushed over lottery machines and tables that served as a bunker. He cared little for the money and youki blood that exploded outward.

A youki transformed into his true form, a troll, and attacked. He barely made it 2 steps before his chest was blown open by a grenade launcher round.

The augment hurled 2 grenades from his belt, behind barricades to cover him while he reloaded.

When he slammed in the final shell, he leaned back to avoid getting hit by a sharp katana. He glanced over to see a girl with 2 balls on opposite sides of her head, a Chinese dress, and a katana in hand. She looked furious. She charged with her sword poised to strike. He stuck her in the solar plexus with his free hand. He grabbed his side arm and shot her in the kneecap. Placing the gun back in his holster, he lifted her by the neck, and used her as his new meat shield.

He continued his rampage until everyone had fled or died.

The evidence removal teams arrived to find that not a single body was completely there. Everything was either missing a few pieces, or there were only a few pieces left.

=8=8=8=8=

Dossier: Yuri; Strong, primal, aggressive, skilled in hand to hand, survival expert.

Note: He's the only augment that can carry a thunder hammer both in standard power armor and no armor at all.

Russia

Yuri thought he was in paradise.

He was in his mother land, with his proud new hammer, and his proud new bear skull strapped to his back.

He swung left and caved in a hollow's skull in. Its real skull.

He swung right and saw three of the fiends fly backward to the energy and electricity boom his hammer caused.

He swung straight down and watched in amusement as hollows were scattered away from him at all sides.

The beast took to circling him and attacking from all sides. Once they got close, he firmly planted his feet and held the hammer upside down. He brought the hammer straight down, in between his feet. The shockwave expanded outward. Electricity and energy swept every hollow within 10 meters off their feet. They writhed in pain as the hammer passed electricity through the snow, and shocked all of them. Yuri's rubber under suit, which he had been told to wear before he even thought about touching the hammer, kept him safe.

He calmly pulled out his handgun and put every surrounding hollow out its misery. He was in no hurry as reveled in the slaughter of these creatures who dare threaten his home.

He noticed red behind him and turned to see a cero being charged by a farther back hollow. He hurled his hammer at the hollow like a spear. The hammerhead impacted and blasted the hollow backward. The cero discharged into the sky. Seeing as the hollow didn't get back up, or even move he assumed the electricity had turned off its brain and killed it.

He retrieved his hammer and looked it over for any obvious signs of damage.

He confirmed it was still as good as new and began trudging back to the pickup zone.

Then an Adjuchas level hollow landed in front of him.

He informed the helicopter pilot that he'd be a little late.

=8=8=8=8=

Dossier: Eli; Highest rated CQC expert, hyper-lethal, purely professional, humanitarian.

Notes: refuses to kill enemies that he views as innocent. He's looked down on for his moral tendencies but respected for his skill. He has an odd preference for twin sabers over any gun, despite his crack shot accuracy.

Japan

The rogue arrancar staggered back. He had been confused this whole battle.

He planned to kill a few humans for food, and then lay low till Aizen's trackers stopped looking.

Then he was intercepted.

Try as he might this human was simply too fast to hit.

The arrancar punched and kicked at this armored human but both were easily dodged or redirected through manipulating his nerve centers and pressure points.

He fired ceros and balas but both were easily dodged, at range and point blank.

He swung and slashed but every missed swing was a large opening that his enemy exploited. If he had needed to breathe he would have died to his airway collapsing 30 seconds into the fight. His hierro didn't defend from blunt force, and his combatant was apparently skilled in killing with bare hands. His throat had been punched and spin-kicked far past the point that most necks, youki or human, would've broken by now.

When he tried to force his enemy still with a burst of rietsu, as risky as it was for his situation, his opponent didn't even seem to notice. He blamed it on the power armor being worn.

Eli, as well, noticed that throat and solar plexus shots were hurting the arrancar but beside that seemed to do no lasting damage. His swords were unable to cut anything but his clothes, no matter where or how hard he cut. To his benefit, it appeared his opponent had lost the ability to talk with his airway collapsed. He also seemed very uncomfortable for the same reason.

So he tried a new tactic. He slipped a small, 4 inch long throwing knife out of its hidden sheath with 2 fingers.

The arrancar sonido'd behind Eli.

Let it be known, that when you could readily dodge bullets with ease, teleporting near your enemy was suddenly a very underwhelming tactic.

Eli whipped around and elbowed the arrancar in his right eye, before it could swing its' sword. The advanced hollow hissed in pain.

Eli followed up by dropping to his back and kicking both his legs up. Both feet made contact with the hollows throat, causing searing pain. Eli leaped back up. The hollow moved his hand from his eye to comfort his throat.

Eli plunged his throwing knife into the hollow unprotected eye. The arrancar was unable to scream thanks to Eli's handiwork.

The augment then, drew one of his sabers, and plunged it through the other eye, this one passing straight through, and into the brain. His sword stopped at the back of the skull, Eli noted.

Eli reclaimed and cleaned off both his weapons, and watched the arrancar collapse to the ground.

xxXxx

Tosen watched the short lived fight from high in the sky, intrigued. He had to report this to Aizen immediately.

xxXxx

Author's note:…I regret nothing.


	6. Political Warfare

Author's note: 40 reviews in 5 chapters? YES! I average 8 reviews per chapter! I'm now a mediocre to slightly above average fanfiction writer!

Anyway, people have noticed that I'm making humanity take way too few casualties. To be honest, monsters were never in position to seriously oppose ANY human military superpower. The highest concentration of monsters was in Japan (for some odd reason) and they were terrified at the idea of going to full fledge war with just the local humans of Japan.

The hollows are another story entirely. With rietsu radars, PWCD military can easily pinpoint and respond to any gargantuas the hollows open to crossover. However, hollows haven't really done much damage because they haven't figured out there's an organized military force besides the soul reapers offing them. At least up until now.

**Political Warfare**

Unknown time Los Noches

Aizen, for the first time in a while, was a caught unaware.

Tosen had informed him that a rouge arrancar was killed just 3 days ago, by a human with no rietsu. Most would consider that an impossibility, but Aizen knew that no rule was set in stone. When he asked how the human went about killing him, Tosen claimed that the human sounded as if he was dodging and attacking at an impossible speed. It sounded as if he was moving in a permanent shunpo. The human also had on a strange armor that seemingly enhanced rather than hamper the wearer's movements. Aizen came to the conclusion that it was either a magic armor that hid one's rietsu or a suit that fueled one's own raw strength. The later would be an interesting weapon to be given out to his soldiers when fighting shinigami. The later would be worthless, for many reasons too detailed to go into.

Then his mind went Grimmjow's disobedience. Or his _attempt _at it would be more prudent a term. Over half his fraccion had been killed by, what he called, "fucking metal birds". They had supposedly used attacks without rietsu that killed 2 of his arrancar outright, and traveled faster than a sonido the entire time. Aizen was inclined to think Grimmjow was lying but reviewed his character. Grimmjow refused to admit _anyone_ could defeat him. No matter how badly he was crushed or battered, he called himself the greatest. To make up an excuse that something had crushed him and all his fraccion in under a minute, wasn't simply out of character for Grimmjow. It was entirely impossible.

Then Aizen started connecting both incidents. Both involved rietsu-less powers being in use. Both had attacked arrancar unprovoked within minutes of appearing in the real world. Both happened within a month of each other. Aizen realized what was going on.

His forces were being hunted.

His first thought was how to retaliate, but then he recalled the Quincy genocide. Rietsu-less weapons couldn't possibly be reincarnating the souls they killed, meaning they were outright killing them. Aizen personally didn't care for his subordinate's lives, but Soul Society would not let such acts occur. They'd assuredly respond with everything they had. That would leave him more breathing and operating room. Before he would try to capitalize on this however, he would have to find the strength of this new "Organization". They could battle soul society for years or for scant few weeks for all he knew.

Aizen smiled. If they could fight pick off his arrancar so capably then he was curious how they'd handle a larger force.

A force of cannon fodder of course.

"Gin."

"Yes Aizen?" The man asked, his permanent smile and closed eyes being his trademark.

"Go fetch Szayel, and Aaroniero. I have an interesting idea in mind, and I'd like to share it."

"Yes sir." Gin nodded once and shunpo'd away.

Aizen, once he was left alone, continued to do what he did best, scheming.

xxXxx

2008 August 27th Japan, Karakura

Ulquiorra was decidedly irritated and fascinated at the same time.

He came with the intent to bring Orihime back to Las Noches, as per Aizen's orders. What he didn't count on was being attacked within minutes of entering the air.

'_Hmm, so Grimmjow wasn't lying.'_

Hearing what sort of havoc these metal birds caused, and that Grimmjow along with his fraccion couldn't even make contact with it, Ulquiorra speedily sonido'd to the ground to make himself a harder target. He was mildly surprised when the bird like creatures didn't pursue him down into the city, or even attack him from the sky, like they tried to do to the Sexta Espada.

'_It doesn't attack humans. What an odd creature. A guardian perhaps?'_

The Jet's flew away, leaving a white smoke trail in the sky. Seeing them leave, Ulquiorra filled away this encounter for later use and went on to complete his mission.

Seeing no reason to bring unnecessary attenstion to himself, he began walking.

And walking. And _walking_.

Most people would call walking 2 miles when you can teleport and/or fly idiotic.

He'd call them trash.

Unperturbed by his long tread, he continued on with his hunt for the girl named Orihime.

Or at least that was what he planned to do.

"Where do you think you're going, _Arrancar_?" A disembodied, speaker's voice echoed. It wasn't muffled but seemed…artificial in some way.

Ulquiorra looked over his shoulder.

There was nothing behind him. He was in the middle of an empty park, so there was nowhere to hide.

He turned back around, suddenly very suspicious of his surroundings.

_Bang!_ _Bang!_ _Bang!_

Not suspicious enough apparently.

Ulquiorra stepped backward in surprise with small gashes on his forehead. Seconds later the gashes cleared up due to his regeneration powers.

He looked up to see a human in strange armor, wearing a hood. He also held a gun similar to Coyote Stark's.

Now Ulquiorra knew where Stark got the idea of using that strange object that does nothing but fire ceros. It must've been a weapon he used as a human.

"Steel skin. So you're above menos class." The 4th espada narrowed his eyes. This human was mocking him.

An index finger pointed at the human and fired a bala. The power was mostly useless on anything above menos class except for distractions. Against pitiful humans in need of killing, it was perfect.

The human turned his torso sideways, and slightly leaned back. The bala missed entirely.

Ulquiorra was surprised. No one could move _that_ fast. Had the human just shunpo'd a single part of his body?

He didn't get a chance to ponder much longer. The armored human darted at him at a speed he couldn't follow. He felt 2 punches impacted his throat. He took an upper cut to the chin, and a kick behind the knee. Ulquiorra had gathered he was being attacked, when his left knee hit the ground. The arrancar swung outward to swat away the annoyingly fast human. The augment dipped under the arm and rammed the underside of his palm into Ulquiorra's eye socket. Ulquiorra immediately registered a blade shoot out the human's wrist and _through _his eyeball. He entered his brain.

By chance, luck, or a miracle, the angle the blade entered made the blade only get a few inches inside the Arrancar's brain. It spelt certain death to most humans, and even most arrancar, but with his hollow healing, the brain damage was already mending itself. The human slid his blade out just as quickly as he slid it in. He began walking away thinking his enemy was dead.

Ulquiorra regained his wits, albeit with a violent headache, in time to see the human walking away.

He narrowed his eye's in annoyance. This was no mere human.

Ulquiorra sonido'd in front of the supposed human and swung his blade horizontally, expecting to bisect the human with ease. With no rietsu based weapon or rietsu powered strength, he couldn't possibly block.

He certainly didn't expect the human to dodge.

Veltro was briefly suprised. He watched the hollow appear before him in an instant. He saw the sword inch toward him. Thinking at a pace that shouldn't be possible for an advanced computer, he ducked, shoved a grenade inside its hollow hole, and rolled backward.

Ulquiorra barely registered the foreign object enter his hollow hole. When he did notice he reached in, to pull it out, but was too late. The grenade went off, and shrapnel, gunpowder, and limited fire shot in every direction in Ulquiorra's chest. The Espada fell to his knees, clutching a bleeding chest cavity.

Even, with his regenerating powers he felt his inside's get torn up. His regeneration was already on the job, but Ulquiorra himself was surprised. His hollow hole could take in rietsu easily and power himself. A bomb in his chest should've only made him stronger.

'_It wasn't rietsu based.'_

Ulquiorra scowled. He would have to change tactics. He had yet to touch his enemy yet already, he was wounded twice. Wounds that would've killed any other being without high-speed regeneration. He began to look up at his opponent but was cut short.

An armored boot kicked up directly into his throat and collapsed his airway. Following up, a heavily armored body sat on his shoulders and leaned backward. The legs around his neck tightened, and threw him backward. Ulquiorra sailed backward, but reversed his flight. He landed on the tree feet first, rather than head first like his enemy intended. Pooling rietsu at his feet, he shot forward, obliterating to the plant purely from the blowback force.

Veltro rolled back up and saw this. Ulquiorra came with striking range and swung. Veltro rolled forward, under the hollow's sword swing entirely.

Ulquiorra stopped and turned around. He charged a full sized cero and fired.

It was devastating.

A great green light enveloped the area, sending off rietsu in every direction. Even rietsu radars on the opposite side of china picked up a trace. The explosion left a 4th of the park a smoking crater.

Ulquiorra turned around, satisfied that he'd obliterated this dangerous being.

He never expected a roundhouse square to the throat. He felt it collapse again. It had just healed seconds ago.

'_How-'_

The Espada took a step backward and looked at the human in surprise. He forced speech through his burning throat.

"H-o-w did y-ou survi-"

_Click! chink!_

Ulquiorra looked down at the object the human had thrown at his feet.

_**BAM!**_

Ulquiorra staggered backward, his ears ringing in pain, and his eyes seeing nothing but blurry white.

He realized he was being assaulted by the time he found himself on his knee, being axe kicked in the forehead. His head bent backward, nearly far enough for his neck to brake. He rebounded well enough and sonido'd behind the human. He speared out his hand and simultaneously fired a bala at point blank. He intended to spear the human through and hit it with cero all at once. He had to kill him fast.

Veltro reacted as fast as possible. He whipped around to see the hand extend, charged with green energy. His left hand wrapped around the hollow's wrist and pulled it toward him. Ulquiorra was forcibly over-extended. His right arm elbowed downward on the outstretched arm, impacting on the opposite side of the elbow. His arm forcibly bent down, and his bala shot into the ground, making another crater. Veltro snapped his right arm back up and elbowed the hollow square in the neck. Ulquiorra made a chocking noise. He followed up by bringing his other arm over, releasing the hollow's wrist, in favor of overhead elbowing down on the hollow's shoulder nerve. Veltro dropped low, and swept the hollow's feet from under him.

Quickly realizing that a close quarters fight didn't favor him, he sonido'd the sky before his back touched the ground.

A cero charged on his finger.

He fired again and again and again.

Veltro was wondering if the PWCD bases in Europe were picking up traces of this fight.

Green orbs illuminated the already bright day time sky.

Every shot the human, darted out of the blast radius. Ulquiorra was tempted to think he was using shunpo, but he could visibly see the humans force himself to stop when he dodged. Shunpo didn't have that affect. He barely registered the clacks and pings of bullets hitting his skin. To him, it was like being aggressively poked by some fool.

Veltro was majorly irritated, as he lay on the ground, in prone, with his active camo on. In the air, all he could do was ineffectively shoot at the hollow. His only chance was to stab or shoot it through the head many times. That was only something he could accomplish if his assailant was on the ground. Seeing as the hollow was more than content to blast away at him from the sky, he doubted that particular chance would come again.

All he could do now, was wait for reinforcements.

"**Hollow sighted.**"

Veltro and Ulquiorra both looked at the new arrival.

There stood a pair of terminator suits.

'_Speak of the devil.'_ Veltro mused.

These were the newly modified terminators however. These were Terminator: Assault Variants. They wielded Thunder Hammers in 2 handed grips, along with a rietsu cell on their back. This cell served two functions. The first was to power the hammer externally to give it additional power when combating vasto lorde, adjuchas, and, as of now, arrancar class hollows. The secondary purpose was to accelerate the suit, and its operator at sonic speeds. Though it could accelerate no farther than 50 feet without stopping to recharge for several seconds, it allowed the previously slow moving walking tank to become _very _maneuverable.

Ulquiorra glared at them. These beings were humans as well, but the suits they had were carrying enough rietsu to evolve a menos class hollow into a Gillian.

Ulquiorra could easily overpower these humans, but then he factored in his previous enemy. That rietsu-less human had come uncomfortably close to killing him in single combat. These 2 could possibly be even more dangerous simply because rietsu fueled their blows. The Espada didn't like his odds. A proven to be deadly enemy and 2 unkowns, were against him alone. He decided to, at the very least, sample their abilities before begrudgingly departing.

"**Engage.**"

_POP!_

Ulquiorra looked up, and his eyes widened. One of the large, armored humans appeared directly above him, with its hammer already swinging down. The cuatro Espada raised an arm to block, and immediately regretted it. Fighting with hammers was a different concept to fighting with swords. Swords relied on cutting and penetrating to do damage. Hammers simply relied on contact. The very act of blocking a hammer was the worst method of response. It was the equivalent to trying to grab swung a swords barehanded.

The arrancar slammed into the ground hard enough to make a crater. He laid there as electricity coursed through his body, making his nerves act up. He opened his eyes to see the assailant, not charging, but _falling_ towards him.

He quickly sonido'd out of the human's falling path. The second he stopped near a park bench, he was assaulted.

Veltro appeared behind him, and did a butterfly kick to the arrancar's ear. Before the Espada could act, he received a flying roundhouse kick to the neck. They did little damage to him but succeeded in his intended purpose. They kept him off balance.

The second Terminator simply _popped_ into existence directly in front of Ulquiorra. It swung horizontally at the Espada, meaning to launch the hollow like a baseball.

Ulquiorra, having learned his lesson, ducked the hammer, feeling the electricity rustle his hair as it passed. Ulquiorra put a fair amount of rietsu into his hand and palm-thrusted the human in response, launching him through several trees.

Veltro appeared beside Ulquiorra, and once again inserted a live grenade in his hollow hole. Ulquiorra's eyes widened and he Sonido'd backward about 12 feet.

The grenade didn't follow.

Veltro quickly rolled away as the grenade detonated, missing most of the shrapnel. What little hit him was easily deflected by his armor.

Both terminator suits reappeared directly in front of the arrancar, with raised hammers. The hollow's eyes narrowed in annoyance and he sonido'd 10 more feet backward. Both hammers slammed down on his previous position and tore the ground up with rietsu and electricity. The electricity spread far enough to lightly buzz Ulquiorra. He barely flinched at the feeling, but otherwise ignored it.

He raised a hand to hit them both with a cero. Just when green appeared on his index finger, armored boots slammed against both his shoulders. His eyes widened and he looked up to see his original combatant with his hidden blade fully extended out his left wrist, and a handgun in his right hand.

Veltro saw an opening and he took it. He charged in between the Terminator suits, at his target. He knew that even they might not survive the full force of the hollows ranged attack. He sprinted even harder than that night at Dracula's mansion, several years ago. The hollow saw him and, for a split second, tried to correct his aim. Not giving the hollow a chance, he leapt. Most S-class monsters, with the exception of werewolves, could take a charge to the chest from even the largest augment humans. Since ground grappling and CQC was where many Special Forces in the PWCD shinned, they developed a new method to takedowns. Instead of pitting your momentum against their strength, they focused that power from a charge into a single area. By jumping and planting your feet against someone's shoulders, while at the same time leaning forward and putting your weight (i.e. torso and head) just above your legs, you could knock even the largest of men over. Against larger monsters like orcs and trolls, the same applied by placing both feet to the face. Against arrancar, the effect remained to be seen. Until now.

Ulquiorra was taken by surprise, and was tipped backward by the change in weight and balance. His eye's widened as the gun lined against his eye, while he fell. He quickly closed his eyes and hardened his skin as much as he could.

_Bang!-ping!_

Ulquiorra fell to the ground and Veltro front rolled forward, off of him. The human turned to inspect his work. His eyes widened.

Ulquiorra survived. By hardening his skin and blinking.

'_That bullet should've carved a hole in his brain. Damnit.'_

Ulquiorra's hierro had barely stopped the bullet from entering. That didn't stop it from banging against his eye lid hard enough to bust his eyeball.

He quickly sonido'd to the air.

He glared down with his good eye, while the other was quickly regenerating. He was too outnumbered to properly fight. He'd retreat and tell Aizen-sama of this new development.

"This isn't over Humans."

A gargantua opened in the sky. The Ulquiorra entered, and allowed it to close behind him.

Veltro glared at the sky. He never let a mark escape him.

Ever.

"You live today, hollow. But Mark my words, nothing ever fights me and lives to talk of it. I'm going to hunt you down. I'm going to find you, and I will kill you."

Veltro's active camo came online. He faded away into nothing, and left, thoroughly irritated.

xxXxx

2008 September 7th Undisclosed location

The President stared with cold judging eyes. He had seemingly been staring into the man's soul.

Under his desk was a pager that would set off a system wide alarm. There was also a loaded shotgun as a back-up. On either side of the office door stood 2 fully outfitted and armed augments standing at ease. Outside that door were also defensive turrets, hidden cameras, and computer operated tasers.

Kisuke suppressed a shudder.

This man was seemingly as bad as the Captain Commander.

"So, I hear you've done great things for our organization Mr. Urahara." The President spoke in a no non-sense tone.

Normally, he was a very laid back, enjoyable person to be around. When potential threats walked into his office, he was all business. He continued.

"Rietsu radars, energy cells, weaponry, and invaluable information, all given out in exchange for simply covering your living expenses, as well as protection of certain individuals."

"Well yes, it was a very great deal! You know how dreadful it is trying to maintain a day job when-"

"What do you really want?"

It wasn't a question, despite its phrasing. The tone clearly stated that it was a demand.

"You asked for dossier's of our best operatives. You delivered vital news of an imminent attack and seemingly get little to nothing in return. We don't do favors, Mr. Urahara." Kisuke simply smirked.

"Good. That'll take you a long way!"

The president narrowed his eyes at the implied insult.

"In all seriousness though, I'm not hear for simple personal gain. You've read the information I've given you. Soul reapers exist to protect the balance of souls, humans in particular. However, whether you realize it or not, humanity has risen in power in recent years. Knowledge of city destroying weapons being produced in mass by humans, made both monsters and evil spirits take pause in fighting you so brazenly. Now with the presence of a human force that actively hunts both parties to deadly effect, you're coaxing the very thing the world of the dead and living alike have feared. A dimensional war. I wish to prevent that from happening by any means necessary."

"From what reports tell me, you aren't succeeding." Kisuke looked to the ground at that note.

"You're right. With Aizen leading the hollows on his own personal agenda, and the Gotei 13 being… the Gotei 13, I fear war is inevitable. Humanity however would see that peace is best kept if they were the victors. The hollows would devourer everything in sight, even each other, while Aizen sits on his throne and watched. The Gotei 13 would destroy all form of Human government and leave humanity in a state of chaos for all they care, so long as the non-existent balance is kept."

"So you want to help us, because you believe in allowing living beings and souls alike to live how they want and not be dominated by a so called 'evil' or morally questionable force. And you think we're the good guys in all this?"

"Of course not. You have your skeletons, just like everyone else does. You simply hide them, and make an attempt to be the moral protectors of the weak, regardless. Which is more than I can say for the others."

The President stood up. Kisuke stood up as well. The guards tensed, ready to act at a moment's notice.

The President extended his hand, with a shit-eating grin on his face. Kisuke responded by taking the hand and putting on a similar smile on his face.

The guards face-faulted.

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." The President stated.

"I couldn't agree more." Kisuke said.

The guards spoke amongst each other.

"Oh God. Theres' two of em." Guard 1 stated.

"How does someone like that become the most powerful Human of the world?" Guard 2 responded.

xxXxx

Author's note: Rather short chapter.

It's also come to my notice, all the ethical problems with building super soldiers.

Here is a list why making super soldiers in today's modern setting is a bad idea

-If you have these unstoppable soldiers, whose going to make them listen to orders? Other super soldiers?

-What is it they're doing that a bomb or an army can't do?

-Where are you going to put them during peace time? Make them retire and hope all those super human powers you gave them don't factor into their civilian life?

-If the public finds out, won't there be a ton of religious, moral, and humanitarian problems brought up.

-Won't they eventually stop feeling human, and question the nature of humanity?

Here is a list why making super soldiers has none of those ill effects in this particular universe

-The super soldiers are morally invested in fighting for humans, rather than doing it because some guy tells them to. (In most cases. Others just hate monsters and enjoy venting that feeling)

-A bomb can't be used when fighting monsters and hollows close to other civilians. Armies will be hard pressed fighting spirits that can cause all kinds of weird shit, like tsunamis and earth quakes.

-In a world of monsters, evil souls, and morally questionable spirits, there's only war (epic 40k reference). Peace time is a crazy dream.

-If no one realizes that all the craters, man shaped wall indentions, and random explosions frequently happening in the same city _may _be connected, then I refuse to believe someone who _tries_ to be subtle will be caught.

-They may feel alienated at times but they've seen what a real monster looks and acts like. Neither they, nor _most_ humans are anything like that.

Look at all the universes that involve super soldiers. They all face non-human entities that actually make super soldiers necessary.

Warhammer 40k-space marines

Halo-Spartans (who _would _have rebelled had the covenant not shown up)

Crisis-Alcatraz and the Nano suit

Prototype-Blackwatch super soldiers (generic, I know)

The list goes on. They all require an overarching non-human enemy for super soldiers to have a real purpose they won't run off and rebel against.

For this fic, evil and questionable spirits of the deceased, monsters, as well as the other nasty things running around fill that role quite well.


	7. The girl that played with fire

Author's Note: A lot of buildup in this chapter. I'm simply giving out fair warning.

Everybody I'm taking ideas, If I don't remind you enoguh. If you had ample proof, live prisoners, and all the influence and support in the world, how would you go about getting the public to believe in monsters and invisible spirits?

I ask, because in future chapters there are 2 ways this story can go.

Humanity can go on the offensive against hollows, and potentially Soul Society. (You're liable to see Nukes go off in Huecco Mundo)

The hollows, and potentially, the shinigami can invade the real world and have humanity respond in several different ways.

Option A means that everything can be kept secret and nothing TOO massive will happen in the real world. The world will go on oblivious that there's a giant black op war going on over and under their heads.

Option B means humanity as a whole, U.S.A., Russia, Japan, and everywhere in between sound the alarms and go marching against the Hollows and monsters. Humans will then live in a state of permanent war time, pour zillions of the worlds currency into military spending and monster busting, and grow a hate for anything non-human or abhuman (Just like the Imperium of Man).

Vote in the comment section for whichever you prefer, as I'm torn about which one I'd prefer to run with. Part of me wants to see what Modern Warfare 3 would be like versus all monsters and hollows. The other part doesn't want to have to write a scene that explains all this crap to every human civilian in a believable way.

Btw to anyone who hasn't seen the new Black ops 2 commercial feast your eyes on this youtube video

.com/watch?v=Gm5PZGb3OyQ&feature=relmfu

Even I was beginning to think my tech exploits with the PWCD was getting a bit unrealistic. Turns out that if you subtract monsters and powerful spirits, this could really be the future.

**The girl that played with fire**

2008 October 1st Japan undisclosed location

Gyokuro was proud of herself.

2 years of planning, hiding, and careful recruiting. She made sure to only admit those who had absolute hatred for humanity. Anyone who felt impartial or even liked something, _anything_, about humans was quickly silenced. There was no room for argument. Some claimed it vile or evil to kill fellow monsters, for not being completely right wing with them in their beliefs. They simply didn't understand however. She wasn't removing them out of want, but out of absolute necessity. The humans kept discovering their activities through spy networks and hidden recordings. Fairy Tale did plenty to avoid being spotted by the human public.

They practically broadcasted their activity to the monster world however.

The humans had likely found and raided, destroyed, or captured every base Fairy Tale had made. Gyokuro quickly realized that she would have to practically start from the ground up in rebuilding Fairy Tale. This time, however, she would go about it, with enemy counter-organizations in mind.

Every deal or alliance she made was in secret. Everyone was kept on as short a leash as possible. Everyone that knew something they didn't need to know were either "persuaded" to forget, or were dealt with accordingly. There could be absolutely _no _information leaks, or potential double agents. Fairy Tale couldn't afford to be discovered or uprooted at this time. At their current strength, the Humans would crush them even easier than they had the first time.

As well, the humans wouldn't be nearly as forgiving in their judgment as before. The first time, the arrogant fools had assumed that Fairy Tale had no idea what they were opposing. It had been assumed by the PWCD, that the only way someone would willingly declare war against the entire human race was if they didn't have the slightest idea what they were facing. They had been thorough in shattering monster pride where it appeared. Any attempt to challenge them was met with fury. They were particularly unforgiving to vampires, who the local population of had nearly been cut in half. The humans noticed that Vampires were often at the forefront of any organized attack against humans. In response vampires were aggressively hunted when discovered to be in league with an anti-human group, even indirectly as a supporter.

Since news in the monster world was mostly carried out through gossip and hear-say, human infiltrators and propaganda adapted.

Monsters were constantly informed of how easily the mighty S-class monsters were hunted and killed by individual humans. Humans like Wesker and Veltro were immortalized for the gossip of how they had a hand in not only killing the strongest vampire to walk the earth, but slaughtering supposedly dozens of Vampires each.

The worst part about all this was that Gyokuro was inclined to believe _some _of that garbage. She had encountered Wesker before. Her and 2 of her daughters couldn't lay a hand on him, and from what she saw at the mansion, human soldiers were typically wearing armor and armed to the teeth. He was in a simple trench coat sporting an average handgun. Even with the gap in weapons and equipment, that human managed to humiliate her and 2 of her daughters without so much as being grazed.

The other, she didn't know much about. When it was said by another Vampire that this human always wore a hood, Akuha believed that she may have encountered him on the night Dracula was killed. While fighting Wesker and another human, a third hooded human had hurled a knife at her. The blade missed her heart by scant inches.

Gyokuro was left to question where the humans had gained these powers. They certainly hadn't been present during the original youki-human war. There would've been some story or information about them. There's only one explanation.

These humans were just created.

Of course, they couldn't have come to being through magic or daemon energy. She would've picked up something. She was the best youki energy detector of all vampires, and those humans didn't have a single spark. As far as she knew, humans didn't have any dormant abilities like Youki did. She'd have to capture one and find out, if possible.

Fairy Tale wasn't as nearly as strong in numbers as it was before the human invasion, but they had easily twice as many connections and allies. Many allies specialized in fields such as sorcery and science. A few monster tribes were allied to them as well, with stern hatred or disdain for humans such as orcs and lizardmen. Fairy Tale only informed the tribal leaders and made them swear to secrecy. It wouldn't do to have a bunch mindless monsters running through the streets, yelling about how they were going to get back at the humans. Not yet anyways.

Gyokuro was secretly gathering her forces, and when the time came, she'd see the entire human race annihilated.

Oh what she wouldn't give to wipe that smirk off Wesker's face.

xxXxx

undisclosed time Huecco Mundo

There were hundreds of them.

Hollows swarmed everywhere, occasionally one biting another in their mindless hunger. All of them were gathered in front of Los Noches.

Standing above them was Aizen, who had a pleased smirk on his face. Tosen, Gin, and Szayel were also in his company.

Down amongst the Hollows, Rudobon and his arrancar clones policed the hollows as orderly as possible. Considering they were mostly rabid hollows, there was very little 'order' to even speak of. It was mostly just making sure the hollows didn't scatter in every direction, doing what hollows usually do, which was eat, kill, and evolve.

"So tell me Szayel, how well does the pheromone work?" Aizen asked.

"Simple. It attracts hollows into a single area. It has the effect of smelling a bounty of delicious souls, when really it's artificial perfume."

"Good." Aizen looked down and spotted the execucciones leader. "Rudobon! Open the Gargantua. Force the hollows out into the real world."

"Anywhere in particular?" Rudobon asked.

"Normally I'd say Karakura, but the Shinigami would get involved for certain. I'd like to see what power these humans possess. Send the hollows to the Sahara desert."

"Plenty of open space, and practically no normal humans around to get caught in the fighting. Aizen, are you getting a soft spot?" Gin asked.

"I simply want to ensure that a battle is observed, not a pointless massacre. Especially one that may cause a premature invasion by Soul Society."

Rudobon opened the Gargantua, looking as if the sky was made up of T.V. pixels. It expanded, and expanded until it was nearly 100 meters in diameter.

The hollows saw this opening. They surged out, knocking over anything that was too slow or in the way. Mostly other Hollows. The evil spirits set about roaming and causing destruction in the real world. Random ceros and balas streaked across the real world dessert landscape every so often.

Ulquiorra followed them through and maintained a large distance. He lowered his reishi level down to go unnoticed.

It wouldn't do to get caught in the crossfire, would it?

The Gargantua closed.

xxXxx

2008 October 1st Undisclosed Area

The President was calmly reading a novel he enjoyed. "The faithful spy", it was called. It was a book about an American double agent under the disguise as a Caucasian male who's an Islamic terrorist, where in the process he _does_ convert to being a Muslim, but retains his loyalty to the United States. He embarks on a one man mission to take down Osama bin Laden's right hand aid, before he can cause a virus outbreak across the United States. It always amused the President to no end to watch the secret organizations of "the world most powerful nation" struggle to stop a single terrorist cell.

It wasn't because he disliked the U.S. but because his own tracking division could pinpoint the exact position of any human on earth to ever have his name in a computer, phone, or credit card, in as long as it took to type the name in. If they used a lot of aliases, false accounts, and fake names, then it took a few more minutes than normal.

Of course he wouldn't reveal this. One of the main rules written on the founding of the PWCD was that they were their own organization. No country had any right to their technology or resources while the PWCD, on the other hand, had full access to latest technology to fight the various monsters, hollows, and more outlandish threats to human kind. They had even secretly gone to the United Nations to establish that harassment against the PWCD's activities was strictly against the law. No one was exempt from this rule.

Of course, the PWCD didn't recieve tremendous amounts of funding simply for everyone to _assume_ they were doing a good job. Reports were sent to every local government whose country had hosted a battle between the inhuman threats and PWCD personnel. Much of it was covered in black ink to keep secrets however. It couldn't be assumed that a dictator would read how a power armored super soldier had just hunted down and killed a man eating monster, and they wouldn't tell _anybody _else. Or worse yet, they might try to abduct an augment or monster for their own personal super soldier program. Kim Jong il was being heavily monitored in North Korea for his attempt to arrest an augment that had burned a vampire's body. Quite assassination was being considered for the next time he tried something suspicious.

Suddenly a red light flashed noiselessly in the corner of his computer.

This was a system used for an emergency. Only Men with the rank of Captain or higher in the PWCD had the authority to make such a call directly to the president. The president answered immediately. These emergencies were only called under imminent attack from a non-humans in force. The last time this was called was during the final months of the Fairy Tale invasion more than four and a half years ago.

"Yes, what's the emergency."

As he listened, his eyes widened.

"What!"

xxXxx

2008 October 2nd Sahara desert

An EMP bomb had been fired across the African desert. While it detonated far away from any city or large civilian populated area, all objects that functioned on energy blacked out across a single patch of the Sahara. No one was close enough to notice, and what few cameras may have been nearby were winked out. The effect wasn't to cause any damage or chaos. What it did do was much more apparent however. Nothing outside of seeing range would be able to witness what would happen in the seemingly lifeless desert.

With a large force of (EMP hardened) PWCD personal air force on fast approach, that seemed far more important than it initially sounded.

15 Raptors came in fast approach, separated into 3 "V" formations. Trailing behind them were 5 Njal storm-carriers. In the atmosphere was an AC-130u gunship, flying far above the viewing range of anything on the ground. Or anything not directly below the clouds for that matter. The cargo that the carriers contained however was what should most be feared.

12 assault-variant terminators rode to battle. In addition were 5 standard terminators with double barreled RPSMG's (Rocket Propelled Sub Machine Guns) and 3 bunker suits, 2 armed with 2 rail guns and one with a sonic cannon. Between them were enough armor and sheer mechanical mass to make General Patton feel inadequate. They rode with a maximum capacity of 4 suits to a carrier. 3 N'jals would carry the 12 assault terminators directly onto the first concentration of hollows spotted. The next 2 would drop the rail gun/sonic cannon armed bunker suits and terminator suits off at a proper support range.

The plan of attack was that the 15 raptors and the AC-130 would drop enough ordinance to make a second grand canyon. The Raptors would then break formation and pick off any hollow they could find. No matter how much ordinance they brought to bear however they couldn't eliminate _every_ hollow. The things had been given a full day to scatter and would no doubt be hard pressed to come out in a shower of bombs, shrapnel, and Napalm. With the presence of human targets, no matter how apparently armored they were, they'd swarm to a potential meal. This is where the ground force comes in. The Njal storm carriers will fly low to the ground, using rietsu radars to scan for any hollows that survive the original bombardment. If spotted in open ground, and they haven't already been obliterated, then an air strike will be called in. If bombardment remains ineffective than the ground force will be called in.

There is a large possibility that nothing will be left to scan by the time the AC-130u has delivered its payload, and the power armored suits will sit idle throughout the entire attack, and secretly, that's what everyone hopes for. The knowledge that not even hundreds of evil spirits are able to stand up to heavy ordinance will re-ensure the PWCD that they are under no dire threat that they can't easily defeat. As well, no one wishes to risk the lives of humans to evil soul-eating monsters. Regardless, it must be done. The raptor pilots were given permission to engage at will. The AC-130u crew was given the green light a second later.

Across the ground hundreds of hollows flew about, killing, eating, and fighting one another randomly. Over the commotion, very few heard the whine of jet engines. What few did had no idea what they were seeing and promptly ignored it.

The AC-130u opened up with its side door miniguns, twin 20m Vulcan rotary cannons, 40mm bofors gun, and finally the 150m howitzer cannon.

The Raptors released their carpet and Napalm bombs.

The hollows were vaguely aware of the sudden sound of thunder claps in the sky.

xxXxx

2008 October 2nd Youki Academy

Tsukune was your slightly below average teenage boy with no abundantly apparent features, something that was sad, even by most human standards. He was your picture perfect nobody. If you bumped into him, you'd forget him a minute later.

When he was informed by his parents that he'd be attending a new school, he was surprised, curious, and skeptical. He was surprised his parents would have him sent to a school they never heard of before. He was curious as to what this school would be like, as the pamphlet made it seem exceptionally outlandish. He was skeptical, again, because he was being sent to a faraway school that his parents not only had _never heard of, _but made no attempt to research it. When he tried to and googled "youki academy" he came up to sites about mythical creatures and monsters. When he put in what he guessed may have been the school's URL address, he was again constantly rerouted to monster sites. Some may have called this a bad omen.

In hindsight he should've confronted his parents about their reasoning for sending him to this school. Sure it was this, or no high school at all, but some things just don't sit well.

He was all for trying new things, but he was pretty sure he shouldn't be terrified just from walking down a trail. Tsukune didn't even know it was possible for a forested trail to look so dead and depressing. That terror turned into paranoia when he spotted tomb stones on the way there. Tsukune was also pretty sure that schools weren't allowed to have a graveyard in front of the school. It was considered un-ideal for…a lot of reasons. Schools were allowed to have stones with the names of important people to the school, but that's where it ended. Of course, all this failed to compare to one major thing.

Tsukune was more than certain that under no circumstance should water look red_._ In fact, why did it seem so vast? Was this school right next to the ocean or something?

Sighing to himself he soldiered on. Nothing made sense at this school. He swore he was in a different world entirely.

He wouldn't realize the irony of his statement for quite some time.

The 14 year old Japanese teenager began dragging his feet across the ground. He began contemplating a lot of things along the way. First and foremost, why did his bus driver have glowing eyes? Under certain lighting, in the middle of the night, _animal_ eyes had a glowing effect. It was the middle of the day, with light beaming in. Then he began noticing that seemingly every creature in the forest was glaring at him with red eyes. When he looked up, red eyed crows looked back. When he looked to the left-

"BATS!" He cried.

The winged animals flew across his face. Tsukune, being the epitome of bravery he was, screamed and fell flat on his back. He quickly scrambled back to his feet with a forlorn frown on his face. He began walking again, suitably terrified of his surroundings.

Then he heard a strange noise, and stopped.

"What the hell is that noise?" He asked himself.

He began speed walking. The noise progressively grew louder the faster he walked. He went into a full blown power walk and strode down the dirt path with a fear induced pep in his step. The noise got louder and louder until…

"What the hell is following me?"

He looked up and saw…and saw…_what the._

"I'm a bat! WEE!"

_Did that thing just talk?_

"Oh man. It was just a weird ba-AUGH!"

A large pink bicycle crashed into his back.

Pain. Aching. BIG bruise.

Tsukune felt better to just lay on the ground and hope the pain goes away rather than get up and figure out why he was just maimed by a rabid pink bicycle.

Unfortunately, life has a way making people do things they simply don't want to do. When he put his hand down to balance himself, and his hand came into contact with flesh, he was aptly startled into consciousness.

The first thing he noticed when he looked up was the face of a girl.

A _very_ cute girl. With pink hair.

Tsukune couldn't remove his hand fast enough.

"I'm sorry." She said in a weak voice. "I just suddenly got all dizzy." She brushed the hair out of her face and gave Tsukune an eye full.

_Why is the background full of bubbles? And why is everything spontaneously sparkling? _

Tsukune wasn't much in book smarts but if nothing else he had common sense. And when things that couldn't readily be explained happened, he made it a point to put as much distance between him and it as possible.The reason he hadn't already done so was because the random colors had suddenly illuminated this woman's beauty much more than it already was.

He seemingly forgot she had just run him over 5 seconds ago.

Then the worst thing that could've happened at the moment happened. He lost his footing, er, kneeing. He quickly put his hand forward out of reflex. Conveniently his hand landed on the inside of her thigh.

Her face broke.

Tsukune quickly realized his error and recoiled backward, issuing rushed apologies and pleas for forgiveness. A trickle of blood ran down his nose. He rubbed under his nose was surprised to see blood.

He firmly blamed it on being hit by the bike.

Seeing the blood as well, the pink haired woman quickly went into action.

"Oh you're bleeding!" She yanked out a handkerchief out her coat pocket and leaned in to wipe it away.

Tsukune was fairly certain you didn't need to be this close to wipe something off of another person's face, but right now he wasn't complaining.

It was at this point he noticed several things didn't go how he thought they would.

First was that she suddenly started talking to herself about "how she shouldn't but it felt so good" to which he wandered what she was talking about. All he smelled was her perfume.

Second was that, while he may be considered by other girls as 'cute but in a dopey way', according to his cousin, he knew she shouldn't be talking to herself as if she was contemplating raping him.

Finally was that she grabbed the back of his head. His first thought was that she was about to kiss him, to which his stomach knotted up, and he lost all motor skills. Then she said something that caused his brain to click.

"I can't help it…because…I'm a vampire!" She pulled him forward and bit his neck. The fangs made him realize that maybe he wasn't as lucky as he thought he was.

"Hurk!"

Then her eyes snapped open.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to."

"You bit me!"

_Wait, it's not even bleeding. Was that an aggressive hickey?_

The, now established, vampire got up and picked up Tsukune's pamphlet from his bag.

"Are you going to youki to?"

_So I guess we're going to forget that whole sexual harassment issue huh?_

What he really said was,

"Um,… yeah. First year."

"That's great! This is mine to!"

"Huh. So what do you know."

_Are the skirts really that short? I can practically see up her skirt at this angle._

"I have to ask…I have to ask. What do you think about vampires?"

_Besides the fact they don't exist? Or that you apparently like to bite unsuspecting little boys?_

Again, what he really said was,

"They're fine by me. If you wanna call yourself a vampire, more power to ya."

"Oh thank you!" He was suddenly tackled with the enthusiasm of a lonely 85 pound puppy. "Well if that's the case, maybe we could be friends! What do you think!" She said as she straddled him.

_What kind of friends are you talking about?_

"Uh yeah. Sure-"

"Fantastic! I was nervous because you didn't have any friends here yet! OH! My names Moka Akashiya by the way."

_Moka. Your parents named you after a drink at starbunks…I'm glad I mostly keep my thought to myself._

"Tsukune Aono." He stated weakly, with a slight smile on his face.

_I can't believe I get to go to school with a girl this cute. If she didn't give me reason to question her sanity, I'd have asked her out. _

xxXxx

In the trees, a single figure watched on.

"Echo actual to command. The boy is in the presence of a youki. A vampire at that."

"Has he been discovered?"

"Negative."

"Is it possible for you get him out?"

"Without being compromised? Negative."

"Well than, this is a problem. Keep your team on standby. The second he's placed in imminent danger, save him at all cost."

"Understood. Echo team is on standby. And sir. What if he adapts to the school?"

"Unlikely. But if he does, we'll have a wraith-class augment shadow him. Command out."

xxXxx

Author's note: The high school arc has finally come around. I can't help but feel I'm cluttering this story. Humans vs Hollows over here. Humans vs Monsters over there. Human going to a monster high school right here. I confused myself! Sorry for the delay but I had a youth retreat trip to go to over the weekend and left mid-afternoon Friday. I didn't get back till Sunday and still had to sit through church service.

Be gentle on the comment section.

And before I forget, yes, next chapter is going to have a lot of shi-*censored* getting fu-*censored* up.


	8. Incoming

Author's Note: I just saw the Avengers a few days ago. The fighting scenes in Manhattan were badass! Then the more I thought about it, the more I started replacing the heroes with PWCD augments, and the aliens with Hollows and Youki. With a full scale war in motion, that may just change from a day dream to an actual battle scene in this fic.

So far, voting between option A and option B is fairly tied. In hindsight I think option B is a little more likely. Bleach characters are never particularly worried about collateral damage. Terrorist organizations (like fairy tale) are actively looking for chances to make themselves known without giving away their locations. Secret organizations are oddly very liberal in using "Final Solutions". For those that don't know, that means destroy the problem and everything near it in a cataclysmic explosion. Preferably, a nuclear explosion. Add all these together and things won't stay secret for very long. The people who vote in favor of keeping secrecy do put up good arguments though. The one about there being enough grim dark stories particularly caught my attention. Humans becoming xenophobic bastards is a given in any story where realistic humans encounter other species. Many of the PWCD augments take a little more pleasure in killing non-humans then can be considered normal. Javier, Yuri, and, to a degree, Veltro are all examples of this.

I'm suddenly thinking about that video game, "secret world" about every shadow organization such as the Templars and illuminati, or myth such as zombies and vampires being real. It oddly matches up really well with the story line here, (only less disturbing and emotionally straining to think about).

Anyway, on with the story.

xxXxx

**Incoming**

2008 October 5th Africa Sahara Desert

_**BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!**_

_**BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!**_

_**BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!**_

The terminator fired his RPSMG in 4 shot bursts. With assisted aiming and a dot on his visor that showed the trajectory of his bullets, he was assured a kill with every pull of the trigger. His 4 squad mates stood to the left and right firing off their own rounds. Every hollow they hit exploded into a bloody mist. Whenever a notable number of hollows came their way, a larger burst dealt with them accordingly. He himself had racked up 9 kills.

_**BANG!BANG!BANG!**_

10 kills.

A large rhino hollow streaked toward him, with a cero charged on the tip of his horn. It fired and streaked across his squad mates. The terminator armor was essentially a reshaped tank. The armor barely acknowledged the cero, but succeeded in scorching off some of the black paint. Only the black to grey steel color change gave any proof it had been struck. Before the terminator squad could return fire with their explosive ammunition, the hollow was speared down the middle by a magnetically accelerated round. The round left a vapor trail in its wake as the hollow exploded into bisected arms and separated chunks of meat.

A bunker suit stood tall with a smoking rail gun. It too was flanked by 2 other Bunker suits. One wielded a rail gun, and blasted larger hollows with extreme prejudice. The other was armed with a sonic cannon. The previously mentioned suit raked fire across multiple hollows at once. Those hollows that simply had it flash by them were deafened and suffered limited internal damage. Those that took the brunt of the sonic waves for more than 2 seconds collapsed to brain failure and organ ruptures. Even the toughest beings, if they didn't have the necessary internal thickness, were ripped apart from inside out by sonic waves reverberating across the body. Without the need for any physical contact, it made a great assassination weapon. Sure, you could identify it was a sonic weapon easily by the lack of outer body damage, but you would never be able to tell the angle, the distance, or most importantly who could've been the shooter.

In this case, however, it was perfect for crowd control.

Ahead of them, the assault variant terminators battled swarms of vicious hollows. They formed a tight formation so that no one terminator could be separated and overwhelmed. The effect of thunder hammers to emit shockwaves of electricity as well as a burst of rietsu had the effect of separate hammer bursts overlapping each other. The different electric shockwaves would expand over each other and across both hollows and power armored humans alike. Even though this meant little to the terminators, whose armor was hardened against this kind of thing, hollows couldn't get within striking distance of even the most separated terminator without being shocked.

With dozens of hollows circling and attacking them, this power was a blessing. Hollows could fire ceros, but the tank-grade armor shrugged it off. They could come in numbers, (as they had been doing for the past hour) but the electric shockwaves would simply pass through all of them. Weaker hollows were left to writhe on the ground in pain until a terminator came by to kill it. The stronger ones were stunned long enough to be obliterated by a thunder hammer swing.

Were it not for the bodies piling around them this would've been rather entertaining to the suit operators. Some of the 10 ft. tall terminator suits were quite literally up to their knees in slain hollows yet more still came. Some of the disgusting creatures were actually eating the dead around them instead of attacking them, which was the _only_ consolation to all the bodies. Of course, a shockwave would buzz a carcass, and by extension the creature eating it, causing it to halt its meal in favor of attacking the humans. Then they met the same fate as the carcass they had just eaten. Dead in the dirt.

It had all gone to hell after a pocket of hollows had been found taking shelter.

The AC 130u and the rappers had slaughtered over a hundred hollows in the first passing. When they came back around the lucky smarter hollows hid, while the lucky dumb ones ate the eviscerated bodies in their mindless hunger. After 2 more passing's it was apparent that those that weren't dead weren't going anywhere out in the open. Finally the heavy suits decided to get their boots on the ground and do what augments do best. Kill.

The hollow pockets were easily found and uprooted then subsequently destroyed.

Then hollow reinforcements arrived.

Hundreds more came pouring through a large Gargantua. The Raptors were forced to forgo bombing in exchange for "dogfighting" with the numerous hollows in the air. Moving several times the speed of sound, they were never in danger of being touched, but so many hollows were present that attempting to cruise and strafe as they had been would result in getting shot down by a lucky cero or latched onto by a high flying hollow.

The AC-130u gunship had no such problems.

It flew high in the atmosphere above the clouds. Hollows couldn't see it at all. What they heard was mixed in with the jet engines and sonic booms the planes were causing. The gunship was free to unleash hell on every hollow that went ground side.

The N'jal storm carriers hastily had to pull back. They could certainly outrun the hollows but they weren't fast enough to evacuate the suits and still escape.

So now 20 suits were left facing off against hundreds of angry hollows. The AC-130u gunship thinned out most of their number before they got within cero range but that still left way too many to count fighting the humans.

It was only thanks to the overlapping shockwaves and cover fire offered by the standard terminators and bunker suits that no one had died yet. There were however gashes and shallow armor breaches. All it took was a single penetration in the armor and the overlapping electricity could turn from a blessing to a curse. All that free roaming electricity would enter the breach and, assuming the hollow had cut through the suit and into flesh, would roast the operator inside his suit alive. The hollows big enough or dangerous enough to make that kind breach were being picked off by the Rail gun armed bunker suits.

Ulquiorra watched the war of attrition going on before him with keen interest.

_Looks like the humans aren't as weak as I thought they were._ He though idly.

When he saw a human fight and win against an Arrancar in pitched combat, without using cheap tricks or artificial armor, then he'd consider them equal. Seeing as they fought through machines and trained attack birds (Ulquiorra still didn't grasp what aerial vehicles were), he doubted such a day would come.

He made a mental note about the formation the large rietsu energized suits were in. They wouldn't be as effective against an Arrancar, but it would certainly keep one off balance if they got caught in the middle of one. And in combat, being off balance, even briefly, was the equivalent to death.

xxXxx

2008 October 5th Undisclosed location 

Captain-Commander Yamamoto was many things. He was powerful, intelligent, wise, and to many of the shinigami, he was a role model. However there were many things he wasn't, nor pretended to be.

Understanding was one of them.

A year ago, he received a report that had greatly disturbed him. Apparently, a shinigami making his usual rounds chanced upon a massive hollow incursion. An adjuchas-class and 15 normal menos-class hollows had appeared. He immediately called for reinforcements after the hollows had decimated a small human village. One of the men from the stealth division went to the human world to monitor the hollow troupe's progress. Just when the proper sized response force had been assembled and ready to be deployed a day later, the stealth division shinigami returned with shocking news.

The hollows had been annihilated, by a human retaliation force.

When they found that no purified souls had appeared, they realized that the worst had happened. The hollows weren't reincarnated, they were murdered. Such an unforgiveable offense would not stand.

However, the stealth division shinigami had more to say. These humans had no rietsu whatsoever. He claimed that with such little rietsu, he was astonished they could even see a hollow, much less fight one. Then he some of his story started becoming slightly hard to believe. He claimed that a pair of giant birds had passed by and fired some sort of projectile at the Adjuchas. From what he caught, he claimed they looked like smaller versions of Captain Soifon's bankai.

This caught a lot of people's attention. When he described them, he claimed they appeared to be faster versions of the metal birds that were often flying across Karakura. Though no one in Soul Society kept up to date with human technology, it was generally assumed that nothing they built would rise to the level to hurt them. Human weapons were built completely separate from rietsu and as such, couldn't hurt any spirit being.

The longer the stealth Captain spoke his tale the more unsettled Captain-Commander Yamamoto became.

It was the Quincy incident all over again.

When the stealth division shinigami ended his report, Captain Commander ordered reconnaissance across the real world. The moment the base of operations these humans had was discovered, it would be uprooted and all the operatives would be hunted down.

After all, it was obvious that this was simply a group of humans with no idea what they were meddling in. The faster they were removed the better.

That was what he had thought a year ago. Now he was all but furious. Across the real world, hollow attacks were stopped in a matter of hours of their appearance. Whenever a force of shinigami was sent they'd discover nothing but the dead body or bodies of hollows. All were found to either have blunt force wounds, small punctures, stab wounds, or were flat out blown apart.

Only a month in and he had ordered any humans found fighting hollows to be killed on sight.

He was increasingly getting frustrated as these humans were responding to and dispatching the hollows far faster than they could hope to match. The fastest time a large scale shinigami hollow response team could be assembled, was at the least 2 days.

Most hollow incursions were ended within 12 hours of occurring, by humans. None of the hollows killed were purified. Despite his best efforts to catch these human attackers, they were always gone by the time his forces arrived. Without rietsu to trace them or obvious signs to go by, the only hope they had was to bump into them, mid combat.

Seeing as a year had gone by without even a solid gauge of their abilities, he was suitably pissed off.

Now, both a blessing and a curse had occurred.

Hundreds of hollows had randomly appeared in the Saharan desert. It was anyone's guess as to why this happened. No abundant amounts of human souls were there. Nothing of any particular value to a hollow was in the desert at all. However there was one thing that was bound to show up there.

The humans.

They would come in force to fight the hollows and certainly wouldn't be able to defeat all of them by the time his forces appeared.

Captain Commander realized he had a small timeframe and picked Captain Zaraki, and Captain Soifon, as well as 2 members from each of their respective divisions. Captain Zaraki and his men specialized in frontline battle. Captain Soifon and her men would be able to track them, should they retreat. He ordered them to choose the 2 members of their divisions to accompany them and leave _immediately_. Many captains thought he was being a little too zealous in his want to stop these humans, but they didn't understand.

Over a_ hundred_ hollows had been killed by these humans already without them being able to reincarnate. If they weren't stopped now, then irreparable damage would be done to the balance. Yamamoto sighed.

Not even the Quincy had caused this much damage, and they reaped horrific casualties to the shinigami numbers when they fell. These humans may even be aided by the remnant Quincy.

Such speculations didn't sit well with him.

xxXxx

2008 October 5th Youki Academy

"This is Echo Actual. All members respond."

"Echo 2 in position."

"Echo 3, just say the word."

"Echo 4, ready to go."

"Copy. Target is in the second floor, 8th window. Eyes on the youki adjacent to him."

"You mean the Orc? I can't get a good shot without risk of hitting the target."

"Go into over watch now. Echo 2 is inside the compound and ready to respond at a moment's notice. I just need you ready to provide cover fire."

"Roger, Echo Actual."

"Echo 4, get eyes on that vampire. I don't trust her."

"Roger. Adjusting position."

"Echo 2 here. Class is over."

"…Fuck. Echo team reposition. And remember, _stun _rounds. They're just kids afterall."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"You all had live ammunition didn't you."

"…No?"

xxXxx

Tsukune was very uncomfortable right now. In a single 50 minute class period, his world had been destroyed.

(Flashback)

_Wow! My homeroom teacher is nice! My last one made me wear a dunce cap…even when I answered her questions right._

"As you know, Youki Academy is a special school! One entirely for monsters!"

_Oh boy! What a great- wait what._

"This planet firmly belongs to the humans class. They've also proven time and again that they don't tolerate any harassment to their species. The principle of the school and past president of the human PWCD one day decided to talk about friendship instead war. By the time they were done, they had created this school. While this school is paid for by the PWCD, it's entirely staffed by monsters. We teach students how to survive in the human world. In exchange for going out of our way to adapt to human society, the humans offer us "scholarships". By exemplifying pleasing behavior, and not only proving you'll be able to live, but thrive in human society, the PWCD will offer you protection, payment, and for some a place inside the PWCD organization."

_Wait! What!_

She then paused, holding that smile and upbeat attitude since the beginning of her presentation.

"However only a select few monsters receive scholarships. An even smaller few find a place inside the PWCD. They won't hold it against you for dropping out if you're not up to the task. Compared to the human standard of living and ours though, it's certainly not recommended."

Tsukune had a single thought in his head.

_What. The. Fuck._

The kid next to him raised his hand.

"If we do spot a human on this campus, can't we just eat him?" Saizou's tongue slithered out. Ms. Shizuke gave him a sideways glance.

_WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!_

"You've never heard of a human augment, have you."

_A what?_

"You mean the humans who supposedly hunt S-class monsters for sport? They're just myths. I would've seen one by now, and if one did exist, I'd kill it easily."

_Are we even speaking Japanese anymore?_

Tsukune suddenly was hit with the unexplainable urge to tell Saizou his life was in danger. He looked outside curiously. He saw nothing but simply _felt _someone was glaring past him. Ms. Shizuka shook her head, simply hopping he didn't learn his lesson the hard way. Human augments weren't known for leaving survivors when they fought.

"Well like I said, this school is staffed entirely by monsters. Any humans found will be captured and left to be taken by the PWCD."

"What does the PWCD do to them?" A curious girl with long flowing blonde hair asked.

"No one knows. It's assumed they're forced to work for the PWCD, paid to be quite, or…silenced."

Several monsters gulped. They still told stories of how Dracula was "silenced". They say there wasn't even a finger left to bury.

_So wait. Either everyone else is right and I won't make it till morning without being eaten or kidnapped. Or I'm the only right one and everyone else is crazy. *sniff* I don't wanna die!_

"This school is also covered in a giant barrier! No human can wonder in, and those that do are turned back by the PWCD before they see anything. Anyway now that the history lesson is done, here are the rules."

She giddily walked/hopped over to the board.

"1. Don't change into your true forms! 2. Never tell reveal your monster identity! 3. If you see a human of the PWCD, please don't aggravate them. Besides the fact they pay for this school and the lives of many of the schools graduates, many of them are trained to fight monsters, augments or not. And unlike us monsters, the only way to tell between a human that you'd easily beat and one that would almost certainly kill you is when the fight starts. As you can probably guess, by then, it's far too late."

_Well, assuming this is all real; at least I can survive by faking fighting styles. I should've took my dad's advice and gone into Muy-Tai training. _

"Say whatever you want, but I swear I've been smelling a human this whole time."

Tsukune shuttered. _How does he even know what a human smells like?_

Then a familiar face appeared at the door. It was Moka, the vampire. She suddenly seemed a lot more dangerous, given what he just heard.

_She's going to drain me dry and suck out my soul! Grandpa was telling the truth!_

"Sorry I'm late. I got lost on the way from orientation."

"Oh don't worry! Go ahead and introduce yourself!"

"Hey! I'm Moka Akashiya!"

"_Look at her. She's so hot!"_

"_Dude, I think I'm in love!" _Two guys whispered to each other.

Then she caught sight of Tsukune.

"Tsukune! It's you!" She went charging across the room at him.

Tsukune used his awesome reflexes to do what he did best in these situations. He sat there like a deer in headlights.

_no no __no __**no No! **__OOF! DAMN IT!_

She latched onto him and hugged harder than he thought possible for a girl her size. That bruise on his back didn't improve his condition in any way.

He vaguely made out various death threats from behind the body latched tightly around his head.

xxXxx

The 2 augments sitting in the sturdy tree branches watched on. They then looked at each other.

"Umm, Echo actual? What does protocol say about affectionate teenage vampires?"

"Well, Echo 3, common sense says to let them down as gently as possible and get the hell away. Why?"

"I think the target may need more protection here than we thought. He's pretty much made himself the enemy of every male in this school. And he hasn't even let his human identity slip."

(Flashback end)

xxXxx

Tsukune was being led by the arm down the hallway.

Down that hallway, everyone looked on. They either stared because of shock, at the cutest girl any of them had seen. Some girls stared in envy. The guys immediately went to fury at how she was seemingly already taken. Tsukune was raised to believe that there was no girl in the world worth killing or even fighting over. Apparently monsters didn't think so. Quite the opposite really.

_Geez! If I'm going to get looked at like this for just walking down the hallway with a friend, I'll need a bodyguard! Preferably a human one._

He looked over to his left and saw dozens of angry male faces pressed against the glass.

_I wonder if when they leave, there imprints will still be there? Bet it'd make the janitor angry._

By the time Moka finally released his arm from captivity they were at a vending machine. She walked over and got the tomato juice.

_Weird. What is it with Vampires and tomato juice? Is it some kind of blood substitute?_

Shrugging to himself, he picked up a root beer from the machine. She glanced at him and smiled brightly. He cocked an eyebrow at her.

_Where'd that come from?_

He popped the lid and started gulping.

"Hey there sexy."

*spit take*

"HURK!"

Saizou picks up Tsukune by the neck.

xxXxx

"Echo Actual to Echo 2. Target is being engaged."

"Roger that Echo Actual. Tapping him out."

xxXxx

Saizou got the feeling that there was someone behind him.

Saizou then felt a cold invisible gauntlet clamp across his mouth and nose. Before he could reach up in response, a second hand pinched his shoulder nerve and twisted it back. The nerve sent a message to the brain, and Saizou blacked out. His eye's rolled to the back of his head, and his grip on the human slackened.

Tsukune fell in a heap. He looked up, confused. Saizou's eyes were closed and he was falling forward.

"Ahh!-UMPH!"

Tsukune was crushed under the unconscious body of his classmate. He flailed in surprise as he and Moka rolled off the unconscious body from on top of the pinned human. Tsukune sighed in relief.

"Thanks for the save Moka! What'd you do to him?"

"I-I didn't do anything."

She looked as surprised as I was. Tsukune sat there in shock.

"C'mon, let's leave."

_She didn't do anything? Than who did? I doubt he suffered a spontaneous stroke!_

Tsukune found himself being dragged against his will again, but managed to grab his soda along the way. No sense in wasting a perfectly good root beer.

_*sigh* Today is just one of those days.*Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp*_

xxXxx

Author's note: Weird. This is my second shortest chapter, but length wise one of the longest. *shrug* I'll worry about it later.

Given that the 3 dark lords never killed off Dracula, Moka's mom is still alive, her real one, and the PWCD has been active for approximately 98 years, it seemed youki academy needed an entirely different reason for how it was founded. A co-op decision between the exorcist and the past PWCD president seemed a more likely reason for a human society training school for monster to come into existence.

I don't want the PWCD to be a moral protector group that's unrealistically chivalrous about defending humans, but at the same time I don't want them to be evil assholes that inevitably get turned on by their own creations. (See the umbrella corporation, ONI, Imperial Inquisition, etc…)


	9. We've Been Engaged!

Author's note: Lots of people going with Option B right now. Several have opted for a less gritty option C though. One where humanity doesn't turn into a mini-imperium of man. Frankly I'm rather unsure how I'm gonna go about doing a scene where monsters and spiritual beings are explained to the public. I doubt every TV in the world spontaneously turning to a channel of a guy talking about proof that monsters exist will be viable. Hell, I think the only way for such a thing to be believable is if the PWCD stops trying… to cover up…their…

I Just came up with a brilliant idea! Anyway enjoy this chapter.

xxXxx

**We've Been Engaged!**

2008 October 5th Africa, the Sahara

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

_**BOOOOOOOOM!**_

High in the sky the AC-130u was laying waste to hollows by the dozens. Of course the third party in this conflict hadn't the slightest clue what was going on.

_The hell is that noise? That couldn't possibly be the sound of a battle could it? _Soifon thought to herself.

She, Zaraki, Yumichika, Omaeda, Ikkaku, and Soifon's third seat were flying toward the source of massive hollow reiatsu. However she noted something odd about the reiatsu. It was plummeting quite swiftly. This meant that either the hollows were powering down all at once, something she didn't think most hollows even knew how to do, or they were being killed off at a fast pace. Considering the massive explosions and foreign rattling sounds in the distance she was betting on the later. She tensed herself. Reports said these humans had absolutely no spiritual pressure to speak of. They couldn't even muster enough to see a hollow from what her operative said. This left her to believe that, like many in soul society, they made inventive uses of technology. Her very own division had reiatsu cloaking devices in order to avoid being detected. Who's to say that these humans didn't have something similar? It was common knowledge that humans far surpassed them in technology, though not enough to be a military threat. At least till now.

Zaraki however had different thoughts all together. Rather than mulling over how such a force could perform as it does, or how humans had mustered it under their very noses, he was thinking about the assurance of the battle to come. The sounds of battle the humans and hollows were making sounded heart clenching, awe inspiring, and most of all, deadly. Zaraki grinned. It was just how he liked it.

xxXxx

"This is Grizzly actual of the shock trooper brigade. We heard your request for reinforcements. Where do you need us?"

"Copy Grizzly actual, this is Brutus actual. We can hold our own for now over here-_*gunfire and inhuman screaming*-_were locked in a tight formation that's helping us reduce their numerical advantage. However, local UAV's identified 6 large reiatsu signatures on fast approach. Barely below Vasto Lorde class, far above Adjuchas class. We need you to intercept them before they reach us and force us to break formation. If you're up to it that is."

"Copy Brutus actual. A chance to kill something stronger than an Adjuchas? Just save a few hollows for us when we get back."

"Hehehe. Copy Grizzly. Give em hell."

Yuri cut the connection and rolled his shoulders. The jet pack he had was admittedly lighter than he expected. He was expecting something that would make him fall backward the second he stood up straight, but it felt as heavy as a backpack with a couple 2 inch textbooks. Mildly straining to a normal human, but it was light as a feather to an augment.

Yuri turned and looked at his comrades. All of them made up Grizzly squad, of the shock trooper brigade. It was a brigade of augments made up entirely of jet pack users. As the name implies, they specialized in surprise attacks and rapid insertions. They had only been active for under a year but they had amassed an amazing record. 2 months ago, they assaulted and exterminated a group of Gillian-class hollows in less than 30 minutes, making extensive use of strap-on explosives and miss-direction. Months before that, a single three man squad had attacked and dispersed a large gathering of spider people, who were planning to assault the U.S. city of Atlanta. Several weeks before that, Yuri personally tested the first jet pack model in live combat against a pair Adjuchas hollows with Terminator support. The terminators had barely got to get a shot off.

Now he was being faced with undoubtedly the toughest challenge he ever faced, with the 9 toughest and meanest soldiers he had ever had the pleasure of serving with.

Storm trooper armor was designed differently than the standard power armor suit. It was less blocky around the chest and shoulders to make the wearer more aerodynamic. In place of a visor were 2 eye shaped lenses, which changed color with the vision settings. When viewing in night or thermal vision, it went green and red respectively. When viewing in ectoplasmic vision, it went blue. On standard HUD vision it was opaque black. The leg area, as well, was modified. It had steel bracers built into the legs, particularly the ankles, knees and everywhere in between. The kneecaps and down looked more like elongated tree stumps than legs. This was to accommodate the high velocity landings shock troopers would often make, when hitting the ground at up to 100 mph. Even standard power armor shock absorbers would allow a rolled or sprained ankle at that a high a velocity landing. The tree stump like legs allowed shock troopers to hit the ground at up to 300 mph and immediately go into a dead sprint milliseconds after. Then, the shock troopers added their own personal touch.

War paint.

Several of them rubbed white lines across their helmet, starting just above both eyes, and ending down at the cheek. For some who already had 3 lines across both eye, white lines ran down their shoulder pads. They referred to them as white scars. Every mission you completed, while killing 1 or more S-class or above ranked monster or hollow in the process, was another scar you added. Yuri's helmet had 3 scars across each eye, and 5 on his left shoulder guard. He only counted the missions he did as a storm trooper so as not to be unfair. If it included _every _mission in his career, he'd be completely covered in white. Though considering his preference for winter weather, he could live with white armor.

The carrier he and his comrades were on lowered the back hatch. Everyone immediately made a systems check to ensure the jet packs were linked to the armor.

It wouldn't do to jump out of a plane, only to not have your pack activate.

Yuri stood up and hefted his personal thunder hammer. His squad mates each held various assault rifles and machine guns of their preference. They also each had a 2 foot long cleaver blade strapped to their lower back along with survival knives. When you landed from the sky at high speeds, sometimes close quarters work was both necessary and more immediate than you'd expect.

Yuri looked back toward the men that would be behind him. He inspected each of their postures and smiled beneath his helmet. There was no nervousness. They were all itching for a fight.

Yuri bellowed the shock trooper battle cry.

"Shock Troopers! Death from above!"

Yuri jumped out the hatch, yelling in primal fury. The others followed behind him, echoing Yuri's cry.

They free fell until Yuri's helmets locked onto the reiatsu signatures. Yuri changed from a nose dive to a belly flopping position before kicking in his jump pack. With stern obedience his fellow storm troopers mimicked his movements. In unison they abruptly went from free falling to flying across the sky like murderous darts.

3000 meters.

The creatures had apparently spotted him and his men because they stopped moving and had landed on the ground.

2000 meters

Several beams streaked across toward his men. Each of them being capable of dodging close range bullets, they easily maneuvered out the way.

1000 meters

Yuri raised his hammer and zero'd in the on largest of them all. They all seemed humanoid, meaning they must be arrancar, the humanoid hollows he'd once been told about by Veltro about. Magnificent.

The shock troopers opened fire.

xxXxx

Omaeda noticed them first.

"Heeeey! Cap-tain! What are those?"

He pointed a meaty fist over at the 10 speeding dots in the distance.

"They have practically no spirit pressure." Soifon noted with interest.

"They're fast. Could it be the humans we're looking for?" Yumichika asked.

"Possibly. Either way they're coming straight for us, with no apparent intentions of stopping. Shoot them down to be safe."

The covert ops third seat, Soifon, and Omaeda, all opened fire with kidou.

"Hado # 33: Sōkatsui!"

The three stealth force members echoed before firing.

Blue beams lanced out, aiming for the fast moving darts that were steadily getting closer. When they easily dodged every beam sent their way, Soifon was mildly surprised. It would've taken a shunpo to get clear of those beams but these things did it by just altering their course.

The dots got closer, until they could now be seen to have a black and vaguely humanoid shape.

_What the…_Soifon was cut short when a series of cracks echoed. Suddenly dust started kicking up across the ground. Ricochets sounded behind them from the rock she stood in front of.

"Aaah!" Soifon's third seat yelled went down in a heap. He clutched his bleeding stomach tightly. Ikkaku grunted in pain and put a hand to his arm. A shallow cut was on his arm from a graze.

_Projectiles! I can't even see them!_ She had made the mistake of taking her eyes off the attackers.

"DEATH FROM ABOVE!"

_**BOOOM!**_

One of the darts crashed into the Zaraki corps captain with an explosion of electricity and reiatsu. It blasted Zaraki backward into, and then through a boulder. Realizing they were under attack, and their enemies had projectile weapons, she gave an order.

"Harden your skin! They're using projectiles."

Soifon looked back to her attackers and quickly dunked. A black armored figure with several white lines, swung a short and thick blade at her. She barely managed to get under it before it parted her head from her shoulders. Before she could pursue a fight with that particular attacker another came, holding a strange tubular object with a box on the bottom and a kickstand on the front. Her question as to what it was had been quickly answered when he jammed down the trigger.

She suddenly felt dozens of small weak blades tear into her form. Had she not used her spiritual pressure to harden herself she would've certainly been killed. As it was now though, she simply received a fair bit of cuts and bruises to the close ranged bullets. She immediately covered up, but didn't take into note the possibility of this second attacker not stopping. Steel, tree trunk like legs slammed into her arms at over 100 miles per hour. She skidded backward several feet before the human pushed off of her arms with its feet, then shot back into the air. The first one came behind her cleaved down. With shock she realized the human had swung far too fast for her to parry. She shielded herself with her arms and hardened her skin as far as she could.

The second divison captain was immensely relieved when the blade simply pinged off. She shunpo'd backward to avoid getting caught in a two pronged attack.

She finally got a good look at her opponents. Humans to be sure. They were clad in black armor with strange white lines. They had numerous pouches and straps around their belt and chest area. Their helmet covered eyes were glowing an ominous blue. They also both had odd tub-like weapons that fired small blades. She narrowed her eyes. The shinigami's Intel was right. No notable spirit pressure. She was tempted to go into shikai, but decided against it. She didn't know how thick or durable their armor was, and she needed to see if running them through was more effective than poisoning them.

Both her attackers glanced at each other, and nodded. The one with the longer tub weapon turned and fired on her. The second one took to the sky, and immediately shot back down on her. She shunpo'd away, to the top of the cliff. She shunpo'd again directly in front of the one that had remained stationary. She swung horizontally. The armored being surprised her by throwing himself backward before the sword could hit him. He rolled backward once, landed on his feet and shot back into the air, with practiced elegance. She immediately turned left, toward the offensive human. He attempted a flying kick. She put out a hand and_ caught _the foot in her hand. She slung the human by the leg and threw him into the dirt. His jetpack still being turned on mitigated the damage but the human smacked against the dirt hard enough to leave a trench. The human quickly barrel rolled to the left, when she tried to impale him on the ground. His hand snapped up with a small sideways "L" shaped weapon. He fired directly into her forehead, and was met with a cry of pain. Backing up, she clutched the deep gash on her forehead. The human she originally targeted, came down directly on her shoulders. A pair of tree trunk legs landed on Soifon's shoulders and grinded her, face first, into the desert sand. She responded with a scorpion kick, launching the offending human off of her, and into the dirt. Both got back up as quickly as she did, ready for a fight.

_Use of speed, maneuverability, and limited team work over brute strength? I'd swear I was fighting better armed, reiatsu less, versions of the stealth division._ She idly thought to herself. She raised her sword and activated her shikai. It was apparent they could dodge just as easily as most could parry.

"Sting all enemies to death! _Suzembachi!"_

Her sword turned into purple energy and reformed into the shape of a bladed gauntlet. She smirked.

"Let's see if a pair of mere human can match a shinigami captain."

"Shut up, and die hollow." The one with the shorter blade shooter grunted before aiming down his sights.

That had caught Soifon off-guard. _They think we're hollows?_

Before she could pursue this new lead, they attacked.

xxx

Zaraki was having a wonderful time. This human, armed with an electric reiatsu hammer had picked him out of all the shinigami here. When Zaraki swung, the human would dodge, step into his guard, and clobber him with a hammer blow that made even him take a few steps backward. When he blocked, that damned hammer electrocuted him, regardless of whether it hit his body or his sword. When he finally got the human in his grip, grabbing the head of the hammer, and forcibly accepting the electrocution, the human had head-butted him, then shot him in the face with that strange blade shooter of his. Zaraki loved it all. This human was fighting with even more tenacity than the strawberry kid. The lack of reiatsu sort of ruined the effect, but every blast of that hammer he took the gut, and every organ he felt nearly rupture, reminded him that was as series a fight as any.

So he began taking it seriously.

Yuri was surprised by his opponent's sudden offensive. He rolled left to barely avoid getting hit by the hollow's sword. When he saw the damage it did to the ground, it seemed more like it would've crushed him than cut him. Yuri grinned beneath his helmet. The damned monster was finally giving him a real fight, rather than a test of how many direct hits it took to kill.

Zaraki swung diagonally at the human. Yuri ducked, stepped into his guard, and with one hand, banged the top of his hammer against Zaraki's chin. The captain took the blunt force of a reiatsu burst and harnessed electricity to the chin. The effect made him stagger back, thoroughly disoriented. Yuri re-adjusted his grip back to 2 handed, and made an underhand swing to the captain's abdominals. Zaraki decided he had taken enough punishment and head-butted the human.

Yuri flew backward approximately 16 feet. He quickly jumped back up. Zaraki charged with an insane grin. Yuri countered by shooting up in the air. Zaraki pooled reiatsu at his feet and followed. Yuri cut his engines, re-adjusted so he was falling to the ground in a nose dive, and cut back on the jet pack. All Zaraki saw was the human shoot up into the air and then abruptly shoot back down. He quickly brought his sword up to block. The hammer made contact, and although his superior spiritual powers halted the hammer with ease, electricity coursed through him, at high enough voltage to cause mild pain, even by his standards. He was really starting to hate this human's particular weapon.

Yuri stomped both feet down, at the same time he swung his hammer. Both his tree trunk like legs impacted with what felt like tank armor. His momentum and augmented strength easily winded the captain, causing him to briefly lose focus. Yuri brought the hammer back up, and swung downward again. This time he swung at Zaraki's thigh. The hollow shot sideways into a cliff side. The captain caught himself and landed with his legs against the cliff, the human tried to shoot him into. He just managed to look up when the human shot into him, holding the hammer like a spear. The captain held against the damage easily, but the rock beneath them crumbled and shattered. Yuri brought the hammer back and swung twice more. Both only served to lodge the "hollow", deeper into the cliff. Zaraki finally had enough and put his spiritual energy into a large swing.

The entire cliff side exploded, and Yuri shot out. His shock trooper armor was deeply gashed. He activated his jets and banked upward into a vertical "U" turn. Zaraki charged with his sword primed to swing. Yuri charged with his hammer raised. At the last second Yuri banked right and whipped out his side arm. He then fired at Zaraki's right eye at point blank range. The eye patched one.

Due to his velocity, he missed the eye ball. Instead, he grazed the hollow's eye socket and shot the eye patch off. He banked right, and snapped off a few more ineffective shots before coming to a hover.

"Damn. Missed."

Zaraki casted him an odd look. "Hey human! Why aren't straining? You should be crushed or suffocating right now."

Power armor was built with combat underwater, and gravity modifiers in mind (mermaids were proving to be very irritating monsters to fight). Depending on the armor type, it could stand several hundred miles below and not crumple. As well, each suit compensated for the environment, making the coldest winters and hottest fire storms seem room temperature. The combination of these features completely removed the primary effects of high reiatsu exposure. Yuri, as well as all augments, learned of the full capabilities and features the suits they wore had, long before actually wearing them. He wouldn't tell though. Only an idiot willingly reveals any of his advantages and capabilities under any circumstance, regardless if the enemy figures it out.

"The silent treatment aye? Don't worry about it then. More fun when neither of us knows what to expect."

Yuri wore a feral grin beneath his helmet. Finally, someone that gets it!

Yuri and Zaraki continued their battle, yelling bloody murder the entire time.

xxx

Ikkaku ate dirt for the third time this fight. He got up and yelled in both excitement and anger. Excitement because these humans really knew how to fight, and anger because they were fucking annoying to try and hit. An augment crash landed directly into his chest, skidding him across the desert scape. The first human pushed off and shot into the air, and then the second one repeated the actions of the first. Growling in rage, ikkaku shot forward. Both augments banked out of his path, peppering him with their annoying blade throwers. He was bleeding in dozens of places, thanks to those damn things. Ikkaku was mildly surprised that his vision wasn't blurring from blood loss.

They came swooping at him again but this time he was ready. He flew backward to avoid getting double teamed as harshly as before. The one in front took this as a sign he was backing out of the fight. He barely noticed that out of all the attackers, this one didn't have any white lines. The augment came in a flying drop kick. Ikkaku smirked at this, and brought up his hand. The augment didn't realize his folly until it was too late. Ikkaku easily halted the kick with his hand and yanked him forward. The augment, realized the shaven man was going to run him through and responded by lashing out as viciously as possible. Ikkaku felt a solid 5 punches with built in knuckle dusters impact his skull. Even without reiatsu fueled strength, they struck hard enough to dislocate his jaw. However, he fought through the pain and raised his sword. He stabbed down, and impaled the attacker just as he felt his comrade plant his boot in his face. Ikkaku powered his strength generously enough to cut through an arrancar's hierro several times over. The blade pierced through the armor and out the humans back. His head snapped backward from the kick he received. He was forced to release the body and shunpo'd backward. He glared at the human that had kicked him. He glanced down and noticed the body falling to the ground.

The human was dead long before he landed.

The dead human's comrade, who had 3 white stripes across his left eye, also glanced at the body before growling at him.

"Hey! Don't get mad at me that your buddy was an overconfident little-"

He didn't get out another sentence. The human rushed faster than even a few shunpos he had seen. A foot kicked up and connected with his chin. A right jab landed at the base of his throat. A left hand closed around his air way.

"Stop talking."

The augment squeezed. For a normal human, the effort required to crush a throat was less than what was required to crush a soda can. The force required to crush a shinigami's throat was slightly higher, but with augmented and power armored strength, the difference was roughly the same. Ikkaku lost the ability to breathe.

The augment ripped out an 8 inch survival knife from his shoulder sheathe and stabbed straight, with the intent to gut this bastard. The knife only got an inch in.

Ikkaku forcefully pushed the augment backward, struggling to breathe.

The augment was disappointed with how little damage the knife had inflicted. Then he remembered that arrancar had steel skin, which no bladed weapon could easily cut. Yet his knife had penetrated rather easily for it to be supposedly steel he was cutting.

_Well in that case_.

The augment flipped the knife in a reverse grip in his left hand. He aimed down a pistol in his right hand. The gun was above, to shoot. The knife hand was directly under the gun for quick jabs and slashes. He had been using this form since his navy SEAL days. Years later, fighting against spirits and monsters, it was still effective.

The supposed "hollow" charged him with a sword in one hand and a scabbard in the other. Seeing as his opponent was using sword techniques, he would respond with disarming techniques. He snapped off five shots in quick succession at the hollow's sword hand. Ikkaku immediately flinched as his knuckles popped and bleed. The augment rushed him. First he kicked out its kneecap. Then he stabbed it in the wrist-located nerve, forcing it to release its sword. Quickly retracting the blade he stabbed it in the throat. Ikkaku gurgled on his own blood. He placed the gun barrel directly into his stab wound and pulled the trigger.

_CLACK!_

The gun reported once, and turned the narrow cut into a large hole. Still airborne, he rapped his arms around the shinigami's waist and shot down to the ground, calmly ignoring the blood getting on his armor. At the very last second he released the evil spirit and banked in the opposite direction. Ikkaku landed head first in a pile driver. The augment landed across from him and walked forward, his handgun and knife poised to strike.

Ikkaku coughed up blood, still grinning his insane grin. The Zaraki corps member's dropped sword fell directly next to him.

"If the fight keeps going like this, I'll die at this rate."

The shock trooper frowned.

_Still alive? You should be chocking on your own blood right now. _The shock trooper opted for action over words and aimed his gun at the hollow, to end it for good. Suddenly, the creature's hand shot to its sword and yelled something oddly out of place.

"Extend, Hoozukimaru!"

The supposed hollow's sword and sheathe transformed into a mixture between a pair of nun-chucks and a bow staff. As well, all of the shinigami's wounds had begun healing far faster than should be average. They weren't completely healed, but had nearly closed up.

Deciding he'd seen enough anomalies for quite some time, he began firing. Ikkaku flinched back with every pull of the trigger, a new wound appearing with every shot. Gritting his teeth, Ikkaku charged through the bullets, at this human. He swung his multi-parted staff at the human with enough force to take out a support beam. The human, using his own strength, front flipped over the attack and landed behind the hollow. Before Ikkaku could turn around, two shots fired into the back of his head, cutting deep. Ikkaku turned around with his staff in motion. His throat was slit, though not deep enough to cause excessive bleeding. He hadn't even seen the human move. That same knife stabbed directly into his heart. Rather it would've, had his skin not been hardened by reiatsu. Instead, it stopped after getting an inch and a half in. Ikkaku shunpo'd backward, but the shock trooper was having none of it. He hurled the knife at the offending hollow, aiming for the thing's eye socket. When the knife glanced off its head, leaving a baby cut on its forehead he frowned.

Finally he drew his 2 foot long cleaver. If bullets and knife tricks wouldn't do the trick, then he'd settle for "death by a thousand cuts". He was laughably faster, more maneuverable, and had better reflexes. Ikkaku charged the human, who in response hurled a flash bang.

Xxx

Yumichika was stressed. He and Omaeda were left to face off against 4 of these attackers. The stealth division third seat had fallen in combat, already being wounded from a blade piercing his chest. He did however; kill one of the original five that attacked them, in defiance.

The first thing Yumichika had learnt in dealing with these humans was to not underestimate them. They specialized in suprise attacks, and unrelenting brutality. Their form was very loose. When attacking, their strikes looked practiced, but ultimately were subject to change. More than once they'd surprised him by doing maneuvers that couldn't possibly have been part of any known form.

The area between his legs still ached from the surprise nut check.

No honor at all.

These humans weren't simply fighting to win. They were fighting to kill by any means necessary. Even without reiatsu they were easily fighting at a pace that even he couldn't keep up with. They had no sense of honor, as they were quick to attack at all angles. Any weakness shown was exploited. The covert-ops third seat was felled due to his attackers repeatedly aiming for his chest wound and eyes. As of now, he lay on the ground, dead. A human had fired one of their knife throwers at point blank into his eye socket. The back of his head exploding outward confirmed the worst.

Knowing that holding back was not an option, he looked to Omaeda, signaling to follow his lead. The vice-captain nodded once, his grin long gone after he had been throat checked by an irritated human soldier.

"Bloom, Fujikujaku!"

"Smash them, Gegetsuburi!"

Glancing at each other, the leading human with a total of 9 white scars yelled his own battle cry.

"Shock troopers! Death from above!"

All hell broke loose.

xxXxx

Soul Reapers vs Augments. It'll be interesting to see how these battles play out wouldn't it? Especially when there's a larger battle going on just a few miles away between Humans vs Hollows.


	10. Black Suits Coming

Author's note: After watching a few anime (namely claymore and Elfen lied), I decided I'm gonna make this story stretch over as many fighting based anime as I can think of, without getting overwhelmed.

I've entertained the thought of a squad of PWCD commandos appearing in the Claymore universe, after a freak accident happened while fighting monsters and/or spirits. The idea that absolutely NO humans in claymore can properly defend themselves is ridiculous. The humans in Rosario Vampire managed put the fear of God into their monsters around the same time the yoma were running around, without the help of mid-evil, female super soldiers. The fact that yoma aren't even that impressive of fighters compared to the vamps and werewolves, or even trolls and orcs, only makes it even more depressing of a thought. The humans of Claymore are a picture perfect image of being defenseless, which I highly dislike.

Elfen Lied is an entirely different story. For those that don't know, Japan is the most racist and xenophobic industrialized country in the world. That's not a personal opinion, it's been statistically proven. The humans in Elfen Lied are so disgusting to watch, you'd swear they were all in the umbrella corporation or something. Children murdering puppies? Scientist that seemingly _try _to be as evil as possible. Soldiers that readily kill civilians without batting an eye? Anime have a habit of over doing any feeling they try to make. In Elfen Lied, they tried to make a "humans are by nature xenophobic" vibe and instead they made a "the Nazi's treated the Jews and minorities WAY better than humans treat little girls with tiny horns" vibe. Personally that never made sense to me. If I can go on youtube and find a dozen videos of Siamese twins and people with deformities making a great living, or a black dude attending a mostly Asian school with absolutely no one caring, then I'm fairly sure that a pink haired girl with horns shouldn't have even got a second glance. I want the PWCD to show a better side of humanity, than the disgusting creatures they called humans in Elfen Lied. However, they certainly aren't going to dismiss, nor forgive the mass murder of innocent (and some not so innocent) humans. To be fair though, organizations that mess with monsters certainly aren't going to fly while the PWCD is around either. So in short, everyone in Elfen Lied is in the wrong, some way.

However both of these ideas aren't going to happen, at the very least, until the bleach winter war arc of this fic is over.

Enough ranting. On with the story!

xxXxx

**Black Suits Coming**

"WOW! That was pretty scary! You sure you're okay?" Moka asked for the third time.

"Yeah, I'm alright. He was really strong though."

_He picked me up with one hand! He must be as strong as that blond girl in home room is anorexic!_

"Oh Tsukune you're so funny! Back there you acted almost as if you've never seen a monster before!"

_Oh hahaha! Never seen a monster before! It's almost like I'm a human! The non-badass kind! _

_*sigh* I hate my life._

"Um Tsukune? What kind of monster are you anyway?-Oh wait! We can't tell! -But I already told you my monster identity, so could you tell me yours?"

_Did she just have a full conversation with herself?_

"You don't look like a vampire very much." Tsukune stated blankly. He was notably depressed.

"Well not right now. Look." Tsukune turned and stared at what she was pointing at. She was pointing to the cleft of her breasts.

_You want me to stare at your chest?...Well if your offering-_

"My Rosario. If I were to take this off, I'd change into my true form, a really powerful and terrifying vampire."

_So you mean to tell me that you have to magically repress your emotions just to be eligible for school? I'd like to be surprised by that, but I was just told all my nightmares are real a few minutes ago._

"That's why I wear it! It's a charm to seal my powers away. I can't even take it off myself."

"Well…it's okay. Even if you get a little scary sometimes, I'm sure you're still the same Moka."

_Why do I have the feeling that my words are gonna blow up in my face a few minutes later?_

"OH I NEW YOU'D UNDERSTAND!" Tsukune was tackle-hugged with the vigor of an affectionate football linebacker. "You're my first friend here!"

_I'm gonna go on a limb and assume you've never had a boyfriend before. My grandma doesn't touch me this much in a day._

"You're also my first in another way too Tsukune." She stated with her arms still around his neck. She looked down at his chest with a blush.

_Wait what?_

_..._

_THE BIKE ACCIDENT! What did you do to me in my sleep! _

"Huh? Wait a second!"

"No not like that. Till now, all I ever had was tomato juice and transfusion packs. I never sucked anyone's blood before yours today."

Tsukune just stared, more than a little disturbed._ Is that why I had all those mandatory blood drives at my old schools?_

"It was so rich…so _sweet… and flavorful…that feeling. I'll never forget it."_ She started to huskily whisper in his ear. She steadily began to cuddle up to him. Tsukune was now heavily disturbed.

_...I need an adult._

Moka opened her mouth, showing her fangs.

"Hold on! Before you get too excited, remember I need my blood much more than you need to drink it!" Tsukune hastily stated, holding Moka back at arm's length. She frowned a bit at her lost chance at a meal. After that taste however, she was certain she would get it again. Somehow, someway.

Tsukune realized that if all those "king of monsters" stories were true about vampires, than she'd have no problem taking it. So Tsukune did the smartest thing imaginable. He legged it.

"Um sorry, but I gotta go!" Tsukune took of jogging at a fast pace, since a full sprint would have made him run out of energy before he reached the door.

"Why'd he leave?" Moka asked herself. In the back of her head, she was planning how she was gonna go about tasting him again. She immediately blushed at the double meaning of her thoughts.

xxx

Tsukune was jogging down the hallways, where many students turned to look at him. With class intermission being 10 minutes long, running to any class in the school was never necessary. He looked so panicked that you'd assume he was in danger of being eaten. So everyone assumed he either left something or was being chased. When no one came after him, they assumed the sooner and quickly lost interest.

Little did he know, he was being observed.

xxXxx

Tsukune stood outside the school, with all his bags, and belongings.

_I have to leave. I haven't even seen what these monsters turn into when not acting human, yet I already came inches from being crushed. I was almost eaten earlier by the vampire chick! I have to get out of here!_

"TSUKUNE!"

_Think of the Devil,_ He thought bitterly.

Tsukune turned around. He was not entirely surprised to see Moka standing there, slightly winded.

"You were acting kind of weird back there." She noted.

"I think I should go to a human school Moka."

"A human school? Why?"

"Look. I really like you Moka, but I can't stay here." He stated calmly, trying to maintain eye contact.

_If the monsters don't screw me over, the PWCD will. I don't have a choice. _

_Huh. How did I remember the organization's name so quickly?_

"No way! You can't go to a human school! You can't!" She took the bag in his hand and started trying to pull it away from him.

When Tsukune couldn't get it away from her, he firmly blamed it on him holding back, for fear of hurting her. His lack of exercise had nothing to do with it at all.

"Sorry. It's just that I don't like humans very much."

…_And you're at a school that teaches you to act and live with humans… why?_

"They can be really cruel. I know because I attended their school all the way up to junior high." She had a look of pain, like she would easily burst out crying at the wrong words.

Tsukune, for once, didn't make any snarky comments in his head. He simply listened.

"I felt so different, because humans didn't believe in monsters. That's all I could ever think of while I was there."

"What does humans not believing in monsters have to do with them being cruel? Saizou doesn't believe in augments and I hardly think they care."

Tsukune, again, had the sudden but weak urge to turn around and look at a tree. Was someone watching them?

"No! That's different! But now, I have you! You didn't mind I was a vampire!" She started to cry tears of joy. "And for the first time I wasn't alone anymore!"

_Now would be a REALLY bad time to tell her I was being vaguely sarcastic then._

"But still. What if I turned out to be one of those humans you hate so much? Would you still feel the same way about me?"

_You idiot! NO! You're gonna get us killed! Stop talking! Hush! SHH!_

"I'm a…human. I'm sorry that's what I am! The only reason I'm here at all is because of a major mix up!"

_I'm such an idiot! RUN! _

Moka backed away in shock.

"You're lying. You have to be. No human could've gotten in here." He glanced at her sadly.

"I should've known you'd look at me like that." Her face softened.

"It's really true Tsukune?" She reached out toward him.

"Just stay away from me! You hate humans right? Don't you? Well that's okay. I don't need you! I don't need monsters for friends anyway!"

Moka's world came crashing down. Tsukune sprinted away.

"Tsukune wait!"

She paused for a moment.

Then she took off after him.

xxx

"Echo actual. Target is on the move. Tag em and bag em?"

"Negative Echo 4. Commands given me new orders. If he gets on the bus and leaves in a months' time, he'll be intercepted forced into silence about what he's seen here."

"If he stays, Echo 1?"

"He'll be the guinea pig for human and monster cooperation."

"Harsh."

"It'd be harsh, if he were on his own, and left to survive by any means necessary. He has a full augment spec op squad ready to pull him out of the fire at a moment's notice."

"Echo actual, I spotted the attacker from earlier. He's heading toward the vampire chick. Permission to put him out again?"

"Denied, Echo 2. Not our objective. Not our business."

xxx

Moka chase after Tsukune's trail. She was desperate to get her only friend back and she dared to someone to get in her way.

"Hey, where you going beautiful." Saizou walked out from behind a tree.

She dared anyone her size or, preferably, smaller to get in her way.

"Sorry, but I'm busy now." She stated with more confidence than she had.

He smirked. Then his form busted outward. Spikes shot out his back, and his muscles expanded outward. His tongue slithered out like a wet snake.

"Hehe. You see. I'm an orc." He stated in a growling, echoing voice. His tongue lashed and took a great big lick out of her.

Moka screamed.

One of the PWCD soldiers watching suddenly started thinking about Japanese tentacle porn.

xxx

Tsukune, heard the scream and stopped.

_It's him again._

"I should go back. If I do, however, I'm just a human."

He closed his eyes. He had a chance to escape this school of monsters and return home. If he left now, no one would ever know he was here. Those that did would think he was simply a monster that didn't want to stay. His conscience, however, told him to save his first friend at this school. The fact she wasn't human, and therefore his first sentient non-human friend, only made that feeling stronger. When he got there what would he do? He couldn't hope to fight and win against a monster. This one in particular expressed his willingness to _eat _him alive! Who's to say he wouldn't do the same to Moka however?

He made a decision.

xxx

Saizou wrapped his tongue around Moka's leg and slung her into a tree. A loud _CRACK! _Echoed.

She slid down, and hunched over. She was badly hurting.

"STOP IT!"

He turned and looked at the person who had yelled at him.

He laid his eyes on Tsukune.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER NOW!"

_I'M SO GONNA DIE!_

Saizou walked up to him, towering over him.

"What was that?" Saizou rhetorically asked.

xxx

"Echo 2 you are cleared to engage."

"Roger."

xxx

Tsukune swallowed. Saizou swung a big meaty hand at Tsukune.

_Mommy!_

He closed his eyes.

…

…

He opened them.

_WHAT THE HELL!_

In front of Tsukune stood one of the most awe inspiring things he'd seen in his life.

A man in black armor stood in front of him. The man had his elbow firmly placed against Saizou's wrist. When he hit the nerve in the orc's wrist, the strike lost all its momentum.

Saizou flinched at the sudden pain in his wrist. Where had this thing come from?

"Who are you?"

"I'm second in command of Echo squad. PWCD special operations. You've engaged in a fight and threatened the lives of your fellow classmates. _Stand down._"

Saizou was surprised. So those humans really did exist? They were at this school? And they were interfering with his "private time" no less?

He wondered what they tasted like.

Tsukune meanwhile inched past the two and moved toward Moka.

"Are you all right Moka?"

"Oh Tsukune! I'm so sorry!"

_You ever meet one of those people, who when you whisper to them, they yell out loud? As if they aren't aware you're whispering for a reason? Moka's one of them._

"Shh! Keep it down will you?" Moka nodded and looked over his shoulder.

"What's happening?" She whispered.

"RAAAAAGH-AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Saizou roared loudly and proudly. He would show this measly human the meaning of monster superiority!

*pat*

Saizou paused.

Did that human really just-?

"What the hell was that?" Saizou asked. The augment shrugged.

"Nut-check."

"HA! You think something like that could honestly hur-OWWWWWW! SHIT! **WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT**?" Saizou's voice went into a falsetto.

Saizou bent over and fell on his knees, clutching his crotch to try and ease the pain he was feeling. The augment just chuckled.

"HAHA! That never gets old! Sorry kid, but the only other ways I knew how to keep to down would've _kept _you down."

Tsukune saw this and immediately tried to pull Moka up.

"Come on Moka! Get up!"

*chink*

"Huh? Your rosary?" He stared dumbly at the object he accidently pulled off.

_Didn't she mention something important about this thing?_

The sky started turning red. Black bats shot from the sky and speed toward Tsukune.

He responded the only logical way.

"Moka run!" He dived to the ground, with his hands over his head. Aono survival instinct number #1: Fetal position.

Then something odd happened. The bats started to hit Moka's body and…entered it. The more that melded into her, the more…developed she became. Her hair turned from pink to a shining grey. Oddly, she was beginning to look more and more hostile. Saizou and the augment looked over to see what all the commotion was about.

"So, it seemed I was awakened to deal with you two."

Saizou staggered to his feet, glaring at the Vampire. The entire time, he was explaining to himself about S-class monsters, as if to explain the situation to some anonymous viewer. Echo 2 just looked on in fascination. He didn't know vampires could literally have split personalities. Or share bodies with other people. He assumed it was a witch's curse. That particular species always had a habit of doing weird shit to other people, that always tied in to whatever crime they thought had been done to them. The augmented human wondered what you could possibly do to a witch that would make them decide splitting your personality and body into 2 different people was "poetic justice" as they so often called it.

The vampire's eyes suddenly zeroed in on the augment. These were the humans that supposedly hunted her kind.

Her vampire pride would not allow her to lay an eye on such a being and not challenge it.

But first…

"Know you Place!"

Moka swung a lazy front kick at Saizou, launching him backward and into the side of a cliff. The dirt and stone crumbled before the speeding projectile that was Saizou.

"Now that he's out of our way, may I have the pleasure of knowing my opponent's real name?" Inner Moka asked. The augment cocked his head to the side.

"What? You think I'm going to fight you?"

"You're a vampire hunter. I'm a vampire. You figure it out."

"Don't kid yourself Bella." The Twilight reference flew right over Moka's head. "We hunt all monsters that cause us problems. Vampires aren't anything special." Moka's eyes flashed in fury. Of course her pride dictated she not let her opponent know he had gotten under her skin. She'd let her blows convey that message for her.

"Well then. I'll just have to cause you problems won't I?" She picked up and hurled a rock at the speed of (and likely the damage of) a mortar round. All augments being practiced bullet timers; he leaned out of the rock's trajectory easily. When he saw the vampire already charging, he slipped into a ready stance.

She closed the distance in approximately half a second. She swung a round house to the side of his head. He was certain that if it connected, it would've either broken a good portion of his facial bones or decapitated him entirely. The best way to fight a vampire was to not get touched, so he ducked. Well, _dipped _would be a more accurate term, as his body came up right after the leg passed.

He now had a major opening to work with, so he reviewed his weapons.

_Knife? Too messy. Gun? Too permanent. CQC? No immediate enough. Water canteen?...Perfect!_

He popped the lid off his canteen and stood over Inner Moka, holding the round H20 container above his head. The vampire's eye's widened in alarm.

_He wouldn't! _She thought in her mind.

Using advance military tactics, he popped off the lid with his thumb and flicked the water bottle downward. A line of water shot out and hit her dead across the chest.

_The power of Christ compels you! _The augment humorously thought in his head.

"AHH!" She jumped back, the water on her skin making her feel like she'd been shocked and burned at the same time.

"Now, you're a student. What have you learned today?" He disciplinarily asked.

Moka growled, her fist tightening.

"You've learned that the most dangerous threat against vampires isn't other S-class monsters, humans, or even garlic. It's a bottle of water." With his fun had, he activated his active camouflage. Moka's eyes widened and she charged at where he was standing. She charged right through the spot.

He wasn't there. She looked around for a sign of him moving. Nothing moved. She searched for footprints, smelt him out, and used youki detection. Nothing.

She forcefully calmed herself. She had been humiliated, but she was certain she'd see that human again. And when she did, pain wouldn't begin to describe what she'd do to him.

Tsukune had watched all this with mute shock and fascination.

_That was an augment? I could barely see him move that entire…fight I guess? Was he even fighting? It looked more like he was just screwing around. OH NO she's spotted me!_

Moka was firmly irritated with outcome of her conflict. She shrugged it off however. She could at least flaunt her greatness to this weak human her other self had decided to befriend. She could bring herself up by bringing this weaker species down. Everyone, who she thought important, wins!

"What's the matter Tsukune? Scared I might drain you dry?" She smugly asked.

_Depends what you're draining…Vampires aren't psychic right?_

"You're selfless defense of my outer self pleased me. So I'll allow you to hang around her, and by extension, me. Protect me when I'm not awake, and in turn I'll protect you." She flatly stated. It wasn't so much an agreement as a demand, with a threat behind it.

_You just got beat up by a guy with a water bottle. Sorry but you don't have any bragging rights._

What he really said was-

"Thank you, I guess."

"Good. Now catch me when I fall or else."

_What?_

She clipped on her rosary. Her breast deflated to normal size and her hair brightened back up to pink. She fainted and fell forward. Tsukune caught her on reflex.

_What a weird day this has been. I met a super soldier, an orc, and a vampire all on the same day. What's next? A bat lady with seduction powers? _

Tsukune got another one of those feelings.

_Damnit._

xxXxx

One of these days I'm going to write a fic about Rosario Vampire that branches in with this fic, but focuses entirely on humor. It throws me off sometimes to have to write about grim dark war and hate one second, and then start to write about amusing high school adventures the next second. In that fic I'm going to have teenage augments (of varied ethnicities) attend youki academy, if nothing else but to screw around in school.


	11. Hammer and Anvil

Author's note: Crap. I was cleaning out some of my old documents and accidently deleted the first 1.5 thousand words of this chapter. As well, I just left to Tennessee last Friday on a family trip. In addition I have to make up a final on the Monday that I missed before.

In short, delays, delays, and more delays.

As well, I feel rather uncomfortable killing off major characters (especially ones like in bleach, which seemingly won't die because they're each wielding plot shields). That being said, characters that already die in the winter war arc, are likely to be killed off. Characters that serve more as fillers then actual plot relevant people are likely to be killed off. Characters I simply don't like, (Yamamoto, I'm looking at you) are likely to get killed off. Characters I'm fairly certain I could get away with killing off, are likely to be killed off. Long story short? No one's safe.

(queue "Safehouse" theme song)

xxXxx

**Hammer and Anvil**

2008 October 5th Sahara, Africa

Two hollows came in fast approach. One was bull-like and the other was chupacabra-esque in appearance. The terminator took aim with his RPSMG. He fired a prolonged burst at the larger creature of the two.

_**BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!**_ _**BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!**_

The explosive rounds wreaked havoc on the un-armored target. The bull hollow was shredded down the middle, from head to tail, in an explosion of viscera and bone fragments. Only falling limbs and hollow mask fragments remained of the beast. The smaller hollow paid no heed to his ally's gruesome death. It charged in its mindless hunger, at the being that contained within it, a delicious soul. When the terminator raised his double barreled RPSMG once more, the hollow had no concept of how much mortal danger it was in.

_Clack!Clack! Clack!Clack!_

The hollow had no idea or care that it had just proverbially "dodged a bullet".

The terminator frowned. Due to the right hand being tasked to hold the RPSMG, and left being a thermal pressure gauntlet 3 times the size of his trigger hand, reloading was impossible. Terminators were either equipped with a large drum magazine or carried a belt feed ammo pack on their back. If ammunition ran empty, then they were left with their thermal pressure gauntlet to see them through the rest of a fight.

The hollow howled as it attempted to bowl over the multi-ton suit of armor. The human put his left gauntlet up in the "Stop" motion. The hollow rammed into his hand, head first and began grinding the suit backward. When impact was made, the gauntlet shot a wave of focused pressure and heat rays outward. The creature's hollow mask cracked in several places, but its hunger over-powered the pain. The creature kept pushing against the terminator, forcing him to slide backward, no matter how firmly he braced his feet.

Realizing a test of brute strength would be fruitless, the armored augment clamped his hand around the hollow's skull. Another burst of thermal energy exploded inward on the hollow's head. Still the creature refused to die. It kept pushing against the terminator with unrivaled ferocity. Finally having enough, the terminator pivoted on his heel and slammed the chupacabra-esque hollow overhead, and head first into the desert sand.

**CRUNCH!**

The hollows _real _skull finally caved in, and the creatures head imploded beneath the crackling fist of the terminator suit.

The super soldier idly glanced at his left hand, which now was soaked in blood with bits of brain matter at the palm. He clamped his hand into a fist and activated the thermal pressure plates again. The scorching heat and pressure burned away the blood and guts from his left hand. Inspecting his left fist, he could see no more evidence of his kill. Satisfied, he sent a radio message across open COM's to his allies.

"**This is Sergeant Boris to all ground forces. Squad leaders list your casualties or conditions. My team is green. No casualties or damage to report. We are either low or empty on ammunition."**

"**Copper Actual here. Several gashes and minor armor breaches across the squad. Nothing we can't buff out." **The first assault-variant terminator team responded.

"**Silver Actual here. No debilitating wounds to report." **The second 4 man assault terminator team responded.

"**Iron Actual reporting. One of us reports a damaged reiatsu cell. His armor is in danger of shorting out if not seen to." **The third team responded.

"**V8 Bunker suits reporting. No damage. We are running low on ammunition with 13 shots between both rail guns. The sonic cannon is up and ready."**

"**Good." **Sergeant Boris complimented. He had never expected for his force to stare down so many hollows and come out with no casualties, air support or not. He would've been reasonably impressed had they come out at half strength. **"All squads, rally to my position."**

"This is the radio operator for AC-130u gunship "Famine". The shock troopers intercepted the 6 signals heading your way, but they're struggling to put them down. Re-deploy and give the jet pack jockeys a hand would ya?"

"**Roger. Can we expect air support?"**

"Negative. We're running on bingo fuel and almost no ammunition. Even if we were fresh, the fighting is too close range for us to help. Sorry, but it's all you now."

"**Affirmative. We're moving in."**

"Good luck suit Jockeys. Give them an extra hit for me. Famine signing out."

xxXxx

Ikkaku caught the strange object the human had thrown at him. It was shaped like a mini fire extinguisher, but curiously enough, didn't have a nozzle. What was the point of this thing? After looking at it for a full two seconds, the 11th division member moved to toss the strange object over his shoulder.

That was, until it blew up in his hand. It flashed a bright light, and made loud _POP!_

Ikkaku was blinded.

His eyes were filled with nothing but white flashes and his ears felt as if a sonic boom had gone off _inside _his head. He was completely dazed. It'd be one thing if this opponent had a reiatsu signature to feel out for. This human had about as much spiritual pressure as deflated tire, as far as actually searching for it went. He furiously shook his head. If he was senseless, then he couldn't fight back or properly defend himself aside from blind swings. Suddenly one of his senses flared up. One of the most reliable senses Ikkaku had. The sense of feeling.

And right now, he just felt pain.

And then more, and more, and more.

"AAAAAAH!"

Ikkaku shunpo'd backward 3 times. His sight swiftly came back as well as his hearing. He risked a glance down at his chest and was angry at the sight. His chest had 4 shallow cuts on it. All of the cuts were deep enough to be bleeding profusely. Ikkaku was deeply starting to hate this human. He used cowardly tricks to attack him, and then cut into him when he was un-aware. Ikkaku vaguely acknowledged the feeling of light headedness. He was losing a rather large amount of blood and it was starting to affect him. He looked up, and saw the human shoot at him at a speed that could out run any shinigami without the shunpo ability. He also noticed the human was holding a short stubby blade that was tinted red at the tip with the soul reaper's blood.

_So the human's gonna try to make me bleed to death aye? _

The soul reaper shunpo'd forward to meet the human head on.

The augment's eye's widened under his helmet and he banked up. The soul reaper, halted and shunpo'd upward. He stopped directly above the augment, swinging down his staff. The augment didn't stop at all. His enhanced reflexes saw the attack in motion and realized dodging properly at this close would be impossible. Instead, he lowered his shoulder and adjusted his flight pattern.

Ikkaku was the first person in history to receive a vertical 100 mph shoulder charge to the chin.

The soul reaper's head snapped back, his attack forgotten. The human came in cleaving fast and hard. The shock trooper cleaved into the shinigami's gut over and over. In half a second, the shinigami received 3 more cuts across the chest, and 1 more across the throat. All his wounds were bleeding badly, and Ikkaku was starting to feel dizzy. Blood loss was starting to take effect and his robes were now a bleeding shredded mess.

The 11th division third seat _refused _to die by the hand of a reiatsu-less coward.

The shinigami shunpo'd backward. The human cut on his jet pack and charged once more.

Ikkaku frowned at having to do this with an opponent that he already had thousands of times more power than, at _base _strength_._

"Bankai." He stated with a frown.

_If the 11__th __division ever found out, I may just consider seppuku. _

xxXxx

Soifon was done feeling out her enemy's moves.

They were fast, they synced their attacks, and they killed at first opportunity. Their attacks were weak, and they had to grind down their opponents with gradual wounds to win.

She dodged _another _attempt at blind siding her from the first shock trooper. The second trooper appeared in the direction she was dodging. He raised his rifle and fired his under slug grenade launcher at near point blank. She brushed off the weak explosion with only minor cuts and some staggering. The human she dodged swung across her back and cut into her back. She gritted her teeth. She shunpo'd forward to stab at the human with her shikai, and the human, _again, _dodged with a speed that shouldn't physically be possible. At this close, the human gave her a left hand jab to the throat, and a straight kick to the chin. Neither of the blows did any significant damage.

This was how the fighting had continued for several minutes. The inability to hit ones opponent versus the inability to hurt ones opponent.

"If this is how all you humans fight, then I'm not that impressed." She stated.

The augments took flight, and got to high altitude. They enjoyed being higher up then their opponent, she noted. Considering the way they attacked in the first place, it made sense. They do as much damage as they can initially, then drag you into a fight of attrition.

She shunpo'd to their height and raised a hand.

"Hado # 33: Sōkatsui!"

A red beam lanced out. Both augment banked opposite ways. She quickly shunpo'd forward to the nearest one. The human looked up and saw her foot descending. He could clearly see the attack but at his position, he couldn't possibly dodge. He glared hatefully at the monster about to kill him. It had no idea what kind of hell it was to know you would die, and have no way of responding. It was like watching a bullet travel toward you at the speed of a snail and not be able to do anything but watch it inevitably put a hole in your brain. The hollow's skin was hardened so that bullets were entirely ineffective. Explosives were the same. Flashbangs…. The augment made a grim smirk. A final bitter curse to his killer.

Soifon smirked as her foot impacted against the augment. She saw the human's hands move in a blur just before her foot hit the human, who's hands were now folded in an "X" to feebly try and block her kick. She felt the human's forearm bones break on contact. She felt the human's chest armor and rib cage cave in a moment later. Finally, she felt the human's spine break. The complex armor did little to stop the blow, but at least it prevented the human from _completely _folding in half at her kick.

The body rocketed to the ground and hit hard enough to kick up dust. The human was long dead before he hit the dirt.

Then she noticed a cylindrical object hanging in the air above her.

_What the…_

_BANG!_

Soifon yelled in surprise.

She had been blinded and deafened at the same time. Her ears rung and her vision was clouded in white. She just barely noticed the black silhouette speeding toward here with vengeance. A tree trunk leg connected to her face in a flying drop kick. Her head snapped back. Two armored fist, with built in knuckle dusters, hammered at her throat, the sides of her head, and her solar plexus. Normally, such blows were easily shrugged off. However, the flash bang had disrupted her focus. Her skin hardening ability had lightened up in her daze. She felt immense pain with every fist fall. Her airway collapsed, and hairline fractures appeared on either side of her skull. The human raised both legs and planted both his armored boots into her jaw. He was rewarded with the feeling of the bone dislocating.

Soifon quickly shunpo'd backward. She was hurting badly from that onslaught and she quickly focused her reiatsu into hardening her skin.

_What did that human do?_

It had to be the recently killed human. Whatever he had been doing with his hands had caused that object to appear in her face and stun her. She wouldn't allow herself to be caught off guard once more.

The augment, on the other hand, was infuriated. His friend and squad mate had been murdered. Even at the point of death, he resisted. He quickly sent a prayer out to him and charged his killer.

"I WILL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH!"

The shock trooper bellowed in fury before darting forward with his jet pack at full speed. He slide the pin out of one his flash bang canisters. The soul reaper shunpo'd forward in response. When she appeared before him, he swung the flash bang at her face. His rifle was clamped to his back in favor of a brutal looking 8-inch survival knife.

_BANG!_

She screamed again. This time, the flash bang went off when it made contact with her face. It may have possibly deafened her permanently, but he didn't care. His helmet polarized at bright lights and blocked out loud sounds. Even at 2 or 3 feet away, flash bangs had no effect on him. He quickly went work. He stabbed at her heart, but only got an inch and a half in. He stabbed again at the same spot and penetrated a bit deeper into her chest. He stabbed once more, fully intending to cut this bitch's heart out. The knife barely poked her still beating heart, but was enough to leave a tiny cut.

"AAH!"

The shinigami screamed and quickly shunpo'd backward. Her eyes were wide open and her breathing was labored. She was clutching her stab wound she received tightly. Had she moved a split second later, the human's next stab would'v assuredly killed her. She clenched hard as she soldiered through the pain of her own heart bleeding. She looked up and saw the human charging in again, knife in one hand, another cylinder shaped object in the other.

_It's those cylinders. They keep causing me sensory damage. I need to keep my distance from those things._

She shunpo'd up and fired a kido.

"Hado # 33: Sōkatsui!"

The human looked up and nimbly dodged. She considered repeating what she did to the last one but decided against it. The human was faster. All it took was a well-aimed stab to her heart to kill her, but at the same time she simply needed to land a blow. A wager like that was all or nothing, and assassins didn't get into those kinds of situations when it could be avoided.

She frowned as she realized her situation. She was now in a competition of who could hit who first. Worst of all, she couldn't make a single mistake or it would be her life. This human would assuredly capitalize on the slightest indecision.

It was then, that she noticed an odd swishing sound in the distance.

xxXxx

Zaraki and Yuri both paused.

Zaraki was sporting numerous bruises and welts. Yuri's armor was covered in scrapes, dents and scratches. Both were having a rather enthusiastic time until they heard the sound of roaring engines, far stronger and louder than any of the shock trooper's jet packs.

Yuri recognized the sound instantly. Njal storm carriers. The only things that rode on such carriers were combat vehicles and heavy armored suits.

Yuri glanced back over to his opponent, and easily rolled backward to avoid Zaraki's sword. The shock trooper captain swung his hammer and banged it against the 11the division captain's sword. The hammer electrocuted Zaraki for possibly the hundredth time that day. Yuri removed his right hand from the hammer and whipped out his side arm. He shot the Captain in the knuckle and made him flinch in pain, easing his grip on his sword. Adjusting his grip so that his hand was inches beneath the hammer head, Yuri lunged forward. He slammed the hammer against the shinigami's shoulder and made the Captain stumble backward. He put away his side arm and re-adjusted into a 2-handed grip in under a second. Yuri swung low at the captain's shin. Zaraki jumped over the swing, and cleaved downward. The human shot forward and spear thrusted the shingami captain in the gut first. Reiatsu and electricity shoved the spirit backward.

Zaraki placed both hands on his zanpakuto. The 11th division Captain raised his blade up in the air.

_What's he doing? Doesn't he realize how far away I am? _Yuri thought.

Zaraki slashed downward. A yellow vertical shockwave came at Yuri in slow motion.

_Shit!_

The shock trooper captain dove to the right and then cut on his jet pack. He shot far off to the side, completely dodging the attack.

Zaraki smirked and swung sideways. This time a horizontal shockwave came at him. Yuri banked upward.

Zaraki began swinging over and over.

The shock trooper was harrowed, trying to dodge and weave between all the attacks that any single one would assuredly cleave him in half. Zaraki flew forward, both hands still on his sword. Yuri flew forward in a mock charge. When they came within attacking distance, Zaraki swung and Yuri banked up, avoiding the blade and shockwave entirely. Zaraki turned to look up, and received a boot to the face. Yuri winded back with his hammer and gave a mighty swing. Zaraki grunted and flew downward. He caught himself and landed on his feet.

_POP!_

_POP!_

_POP!_

_POP!_

"What the he-OOF!"

A thunder hammer smacked Zaraki into a boulder. This one was FAR more powerful than the one Zaraki had just gotten used to being hit by. He looked at his attacker. Or rather _attackers._

There were four beings standing before him. All of them were 10 feet in height and wielded hammers just like his original opponent. They were heavily armored and apparently could teleport. These ones had very weak reiatsu located on their back and in their armor. As well, this spiritual pressure seemed…artificial. It was similar to Nemu's reiatsu in that it was blank and emotionless.

"**Hollow sighted. Copper Team, engage."**

The terminator in front stated. They all began marching toward him in controlled steps.

Zaraki lunged forward and swung.

_POP!_

He was blindsided by another hammer blow to the side. He was sent skidding off to the side.

_POP! POP!_

Two terminators appeared before him and swung down in unison. Zaraki blocked both swings at the same time with his sword.

"GGRRRR!"

The 11th division captain growled as he was affected by the electricity. The reiatsu he could easily shrug off. It was that damn ability to electrocute on contact that was messing him up. It was either block and be shocked, or dodge entirely. Since Zaraki never had a need to dodge his enemy before, guess which one he would be receiving the most.

_POP!_

A terminator appeared directly behind him and roughly grabbed the captain by the arm with its right hand. The terminator made an underhand swing with his left hand.

_BZZZT! _

The 11th division captain was blown backward once more. Irritated by these new enemies, he flew high to get an edge. Unfortunately, he forgot about Yuri.

"I refuse to be shown up by you damnable tin cans!" Yuri yelled before slamming into Zaraki's sword with his hammer. Zaraki blocked the hammer swing, but failed to block the left hook to the throat, or kick to the testicles he received afterward. The shinigami hunched over in pain. Yuri raised his hammer high and swung down on the Captain's unprotected back.

_BZZT!_

The captain landed on his knees against the dirt, rather ungracefully.

_POP! POP! POP! POP!_

All four terminators materialized around the captain and swung down in unison.

_BZZZZZZZT!_

A massive crater was made, with Zaraki in the center. The hammers rose again.

"RAAAGH!"

Zaraki gripped his sword with 2 hands and swung in a large arc. The terminators flew backward in every direction, with minor armor penetration damage. Zaraki's victory was short lived, as Yuri slammed down on his back, forcing the captain into the dirt.

Zaraki popped back up and threw the human off his back with little effort.

_POP!_

He quickly blocked an aggressive hammer swing and kicked away the offending terminator. The electricity jolt he got, he had begun to soldier through.

_POP!_

A terminator spear thrusted his hammer into Zaraki's side, which the shinigami captain hastily blocked. He gritted his teeth at the electric volts. Zaraki's hand shot out and palm thrusted the tank of a man away from him.

_POP!_ _POP! _

Two assault terminators appeared on either side of him. Both swung horizontally. Zaraki Jumped into the air, to avoid being sandwiched between a pair of thunder hammers. Yuri was there to meet him with a hammer swing of his own. Zaraki blocked. Yuri was having none of it and booted the captain in the face.

_POP!_

A terminator appeared in mid-air directly beside Yuri and Zaraki, with its hammer already in motion. Zaraki pushed off Yuri's hammer and blocked the assault terminator. Yuri, being far faster, swung his hammer again at the same time Zaraki blocked the terminator's hammer swing. The combination of reiatsu and electricity blasted the captain into the dirt once again.

_POP! POP! POP!_

Zaraki felt 3 thunder hammers smash him into the ground all at once. Zaraki was so buzzed that his muscle were unable to process the 'defend' order his brain sent. Several of the captain's ribs broke, despite his skin hardening ability.

_POP!_

The fourth terminator that had helped shoot him into the ground joined in. 4 hammers fell at once.

_BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!_

Zaraki felt several of his organ's rupture, and one rib puncture his lung. The electricity had shocked his muscles to the point of being unresponsive. He wouldn't survive the next attack.

4 hammers rose.

"Hado # 33: Sōkatsui!"

A red beam lanced across the terminators. Several of the suits were thrown of balance or were completely knocked over by the surprise attack. Zaraki weakly glanced up to see Omaeda and Yumichika shunpoing as fast as they could toward him. They were being chased by 4 angry shock troopers.

Yumichika kicked away a terminator that was still standing from Omaeda's attack. He slashed at another with his Shikia sword. To his horror, the terminator' armor the made the slash glance off his forearm armor. Pooling reiatsu into his hand, he pushed it away. The terminator, not expecting such an attack, was knocked on his ass. Weaker than Yumichika hoped but that was good enough. Yumichika quickly scooped up Zaraki and shunpo'd away. Omaeda swung his wrecking ball at a terminator that had just gotten up. Irritated, the human swung his hammer at the spiked ball like a baseball player and made it fly away from him. The electricity traveled up the chain and electrocuted Omaeda. Gritting his teeth in pain, the stealth division second seat pulled the wrecking ball back and caught it. He shunpo'd away, barely avoiding a speeding shock trooper with a cleaver.

The shinigami were shunpoing away, but the human soldiers were right on their tail.

Yuri took off alongside his shock troopers. His enemy was wounded and falling back. Now would be the perfect time to annihilate them.

xxXxx

Soifon was on her last leg.

4 heavily armored humans wielding hammers had appeared and attacked her. She was fast enough to dodge them, but a single hit from them meant death in her current condition. In conjunction with the flying human she had received these wounds from, she was hard pressed to avoid getting killed, much less defeat them. She couldn't hold back any longer, she realized.

She made several copies of herself and charged.

Only for Omaeda to stop her.

"Captain we have to leave!"

"What are you doing you idiot! Don't get in the way!"

"There's too many! Look!"

He pointed in the direction they just came from. She spotted 4 more of the hammer wielders approaching, as well as 5 more flying humans. The human in the middle was flying _and _wielding a hammer. Not a good combo for her to go against.

"They already got Zaraki-taicho."

Yumichika appeared before her, an absolutely battered Zaraki slung over his shoulder.

She nodded in acceptance. At this point, the humans would just swarm them in superior numbers. She looked around and noticed they were short one person.

"Where's my third seat?"

"Dead."

Soifon frowned. She had underestimated the humans greatly. She didn't even realize that a reiatsu-less human killing a soul reaper was possible until today.

"We need to get Ikkaku and go. Soul Society needs to know what happened here."

They immediately began shunpoing away.

Yuri and his men were aggressively following. Assault terminator teams Copper and Iron where teleporting as fast as they could to intercept the suspected arrancar. As long as they were physically able, nothing would escape.

xxXxx

Ikkaku was mortally wounded.

He didn't know what happened. First, he was trying to run down his opponent with his Bankai. The human was running out of room to dodge and inevitably would kill the little bastard. Victory was assured. The human couldn't get close in without being scorched, and using his blade shooter against his now very hardened skin would be pointless. It was simply a matter of catching him.

Then he was hit by something.

It was a sound, he was sure. His ear drums had exploded and he was deafened. That wasn't the end of it though. He felt the veins beneath his skin pop, his nerves became either unresponsive or completely shut down, and he felt more than a few of his organs move in a way they weren't supposed to. It was a wonder he could think clearly.

Ikkaku fell through the sky, his world was going dizzy and he couldn't hear anything. His body felt like it was drowning from the inside out. He felt blood in places of his body that he knew wasn't supposed to be there. His brain was having a migraine, and last of all, his body was limp. Whatever had hit him had done more than debilitate him. He felt like his body had been replaced with that of a wet rag doll that was falling several stories off a building.

Ikkaku idly noticed someone catching him. His eyes rolled to the back of his head before he could get a glimpse of who it was.

xxx

"**Bunker suit 3 here. I have an arrancar down. Sonic cannons remain effective against all hollow types."**

"**Can you confirm the kill?"**

"**Negative. Too far away. Besides that, it took a 2 second hit at best. Even the weakest hollows need a little more than that to kill."**

"**Perhaps humanoid hollows are more susceptible to sonic weapons. Regardless, we need to remove the hostiles completely."**

xxx

Author's note: Sorry this update took so long.


	12. The Big Stick

Author's note: For those of you disappointed by the lack of damage done to the shinigami, pop over to my 40k/Bleack oneshot "The Slaughter of Karakura". The Skulltaker of Khorne vs the 3 espada, their fracciones, 6 captains, the captain commander, a few lieutenants, Aizen, Gin, and Tosen. If you don't dabble much in 40k then just know that blood and decapitation are as plentiful in that fic as air is to this earth.

On a side note, we're gonna navigate away from the heavy violence aspect in favor of some general assholery.

xxXxx

**The Big Stick**

2008 September 10th Undisclosed location

Urahara Kisuke was absolutely beaming! He, Yoruichi and the most dangerous men of the PWCD were riding with them to Soul Society in a carrier. On either side of the carrier was an escort of 2 apache helicopters with enough ordinance to level half the Seireitei.

It was appropriate that they used that as comparison for how much damage the two attack helicopters could cause, because that was exactly where they were heading. Though, when Kisuke was informed about the "incident" involving 2 dead shock troopers, a dead third seat, and 2 more maimed shinigami, he reconsidered the wisdom of bringing a rather large PWCD task force with him for a "peace talk".

As the carrier rumbled, he looked at the passengers and went over the names of each one. Jarvis, who was looking at him with a mix of hatred and distrust. James Wesker, who had his helmet off and was listening to an mp3 player. The members of Grave team: Jacob, Avery, Jarvis, Eli, and "Specter" were all sitting across from him, each doing their own thing. Eli was speaking with Yoruichi, who was sitting next to him and the rest of Grave team. Veltro and Yuri were sitting close to the back door, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of using wrist blades over thunder hammers to kill shinigami and hollows. He just so happened to catch Javier finger the hole in his throwing knife handle while glancing at him.

He made extra sure to keep his distance from Javier.

Yuri and Veltro seemed like people who didn't particularly like him but were professional about it. They seemed like they'd work with him without complaint, but if given the order, kill him at the drop of a dime. As long as he didn't make any enemies inside the PWCD chain of command he wouldn't have to worry about either of the two. Javier was another matter entirely. Javier seemed like if he saw Kisuke fighting and losing, he'd kill his attacker, then shoot him in the head before he could usher the word 'thanks'. Then, when asked, he claimed he was "too late" to save him from bleeding out and put him out of his misery. He knew, because he dealt with such people before.

Kisuke summarized his "bodyguards". 9 Augments in total, with their respective combat load-outs, a full briefing on Shinigami and their differences between arrancar, and 2 Apache helicopters to more or less hover in place and look dangerous, despite the fact a fairly powerful kido could blow them out of the sky.

"Attention passengers, we've exited the wormhole Kisuke created. We're directly over Seireitei, but there's a barrier keeping us from entering."

"Is this carrier EMP hardened?" Kisuke responded

"All PWCD vehicles and armor are EMP hardened at standard." The pilot responded.

"Then just go through. The barrier locks out spiritual beings, which none of you have. Me and Yoruichi are in Gigais, so the barrier won't recognize us as spiritual in nature. There may be an EMP blast to the systems though."

"I'm gonna take that as 'this thing keeps out ghost. We aren't ghosts and you two possessed fake bodies.'"

"Close enough." Kisuke shrugged.

He felt the carrier shudder, meaning it had passed through the barrier. He looked out the window and saw the Apache helicopters enter as well.

_No turning back now_

Kisuke idly thought. He could hear the rather loud whirring the Apache's made from inside the carrier. He didn't really notice, since those sounds were common in the human world. When he helped create weapons for the PWCD he only became more exposed to the sound of engines and loud mechanical noises. Here in Soul Society, computers and printers were as high tech as it got. The sound of a single helicopter, much less 2 and a troop carrier, would grab everyone's attention.

Considering his reasons for coming here, he was still trying to figure out whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Alright were in, where do you want us to put her down?" The pilot asked.

"See the large square-shaped area over to your left?" Kisuke asked. He hadn't been here in some time but memorized enough to know what would make a good landing zone.

"There are several squared empty arenas across this place. Please specify."

"The one that's as big as a football field."

"Roger, I see it. Want us to wait up for you?"

"No. They might try to arrest you the second they figure out that we aren't giant monsters. Drop us off and pull back to just outside the barrier. My security detail will take over and give you the word if we need to be evacuated."

"Copy. Good luck Kisuke. If half the stories going around about these guys are true, then you'll need it."

The carrier settled to the ground while the Apaches hovered overhead, vigilantly guarding the carrier. The back hatch began lowering. Kisuke immediately noticed the augments about to exit in standard, area securing format and stopped them. Kisuke felt the presence of Captain-Commander and several other captains standing in front of the carrier, prepared to either speak to it, or attack it. If the first thing he saw were human augments rush out with their guns raised, then this peace mission could be blown before it even starts. Wesker was in command of the humans, so informed the augment to let him and Yoruichi exit first, then they would walk out behind him with their weapons either sheathed or placed in non-threatening positions. Wesker nodded before placing his helmet on.

Too bad Kisuke didn't have a COM of his own, or he would've heard the following conversation.

"Veltro, I don't trust these shinigami to be as honorable as they say they are. Engage your active camouflage. Follow us, and stick to the shadows. Jacob, you're a sergeant and I don't like commanding teams with their own superiors. Keep your men in an escort position but the rest is up to you. Javier, Yuri, hang off in the far back. I want the both of you ready to provide support at a moment's notice. Acknowledge if you understand."

"Roger." They all stated in unison.

Kisuke and Yoruichi exited the back of the carrier.

"Veltro quick, go while they are distracted." Wesker said into his COM.

A man shaped heat blur followed after the two ex-shinigami.

The captain-commander stared at the two people who exited out the back of what he previously thought to be a giant reiatsu-less insect. He was flanked by Kyoraku, Soifon, Ukitake, and Komamura.

"Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihouin. What are you doing here and why do you have these…things with you."

"Hello to you to Captain-Commander. We came hoping to work out a…deal."

"We don't 'deal' with traitors, Kisuke. You should know that by now." Soifon growled.

"Well then it's a good thing this deal doesn't actually involve us, per say."

"What?" She stated, more than a little confused.

Captains could only stare as 8 armored beings walked out of the thing Kisuke and Yoruichi had just exited. Each of them was armored to the teeth, and had the letters "P.W.C.D." somewhere on their armor. The stealth division captain instantly locked onto the one with storm trooper armor, a thunder a hammer clamped to his lower back, a jet pack on his upper back, and familiar white lines across the eyes and shoulders of the armor. The second she noticed the similarities between his armor and the rest of theirs, she instantly drew her sword.

Seeing one of their captains react so violently, they placed a hand near, or on their swords as well.

The augments, seeing the shinigami's hands in motion long before even the ex-shinigami could, they instantly had a various assortment of hand guns, rifles, throwing knives, and other weapons drawn and trained onto each individual captain.

Hidden in the shadows, Veltro thumbed the safety off his "silencer" pistol, and ran mental calculations on the best places to shoot to kill a shinigami.

"Wait! Timeout! We came specifically to stop things like this from happening!"

"_Kisuke Urahara!_ You lead the enemies of Soul Society right into our stronghold! You are worst then a traitor! You're a betrayer!"

"If you would all let me finish, and not threaten to kill each other at first sight, I would be able to explain all this."

Wesker turned to his men and nodded once. In unison, they all put away their weapons or simply moved it to a non-threatening position.

With the exception of Veltro of course.

"Explain."

"Gladly! Not here though. Can we make this private and bring in all the captains and Lieutenants?"

The carrier and Apaches hovered upward into the sky and flew away.

xxXxx

2008 September 10th Africa, Tactical Ordinance Base

"Tactical Nuclear bomb is primed and ready to fire. "

"Good. Double check the portal generator. There can't be any screw ups or miscalculations."

"Affirmative."

"Sir, everything is ready. All we need is the green light or the abort signal."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Sir, we've triple checked."

"Then quadruple check. Then check again after that!"

*sigh*

xxXxx

A little over 2 dozen pairs of shinigami eyes sat around a round table, balefully glaring in one direction with small amounts of reiatsu leaking out. 8 pair of human eyes looked back without an ounce of fear or intimidation. For the sake of amusement, Javier took to sliding his throwing knife in and out of his sheath, to give the impression he would throw it at someone the second anyone looked away from him. Needless to say, it worked, and everyone glared far more intensely than before.

Kisuke was caught right in the middle, with a rather bored looking Yoruichi standing off to the side being his only support.

_Well. _He thought,_ at the very least, if things go wrong, I can't be blamed. Everyone is already an ill phrased word away from tearing into each other._

_Wait a second. Where's Veltro? Dammit, he slipped off somewhere._

"Well everyone, as you can guess, we're here to negotiate a peace to this conflict, before it can escalate into something worse."

"These humans killed a third seat and severely maimed the 11th division's third seat and you're worried about escalation? We should destroy them now." Captain Hitsugaya brazenly stated.

"You shinigami killed two of my shock troopers in the same conflict. A conflict you had no business being involved in, in the first place might I add." Yuri countered.

"You murdered over 300 hollows. That was certainly our business."

"If they weren't attended to, they would've swept across desert and wiped out countless concentrations of citizens. Which is worst, 300 souls killed, that would've destroyed more souls if left unattended, or possibly over a thousand souls destroyed, largely due to your incompetence."

Hitsugaya's hand shot to his Zanpokutou. Yuri placed one hand near the head of his hammer and the other brushing his hand gun.

"Stand down Captain. I will have order in here." Captain-Commander looked at Kisuke "Continue."

"Thank you." He turned back toward the captains and lieutenants of the room. "Well for one, there are several reasons why war against the PWCD is un-ideal."

He paused for effect.

"First. The PWCD isn't simply a group of humans banded together to hunt hollows like the Quincy. Originally, they were created by the many nations of humanity to combat Youki that were attacking humans."

Several eyes warily glanced over to Komamura, a Youki Captain. His eye's faintly narrowed but that was it.

"To this day, that remains one of their primary focuses. As well, because they're more or less an underground human organization for all of humanity rather than s single group, a war with the PWCD is akin to war with the entire real world. With the presence of the internet, phones, and camera being accessible to most humans already, it would literally be effortless for the PWCD to reveal the existence of Shinigami and hollows. It's because they're a shadow organization that they haven't already."

The captains frowned at this, as they absorbed this information. That meant humanity as whole would go to war against Soul Society, and likely Huecco Mundo as well, in response to attacking the PWCD. If such an event were to occur, the effects would be…apocalyptic.

"Kisuke Urahara, do you mean to say that this human organization has the backing of the entire real world?" Captain-Commander asked.

"Minus a few youki terrorist organizations, yes they do. They have backing, economic support, the right to make their bases where they please, right to receive recruits from any other military organization they wish. Now that I think about it, they're simply a secretive version of the Gotei 13 for the real world."

All of the Shinigami's eyes widened and one person did a spit-take. Yoruichi had to ruthlessly kill a giggle that was about to escape her lips, but a highly amused smirk still forced its way up.

The augments were content to simply stand there and look dangerous, despite the fact they were having a private conversation over their COM link.

The Captain-Commander's face creased inward, which everyone took as his eyes narrowing. He stood up and made a statement.

"This…we cannot allow."

The augments tensed and Javier subtly thumbed off the safety on his desert eagle.

"Our duty is to protect the balance at all cost. With the presence of the PWCD, that balance will surely be undone. If it'll mean war with the real world, then we will readily accept."

Several captains cried out at the sheer absurdity of such a thing, but burst of his reiatsu quickly crushed that. He began speaking directly to the humans.

"Your organization is a threat to the order of the 3 worlds. Return to your base and inform your leader of our order to have the PWCD disbanded. If it is rejected, we will escalate to full-fledged genocide of the PWCD and all the super-soldiers they possess. With our permission, you may protect yourselves against the Youki, as they aren't strictly under our jurisdiction. Only that however."

That had got the PWCD augments mad. This man had just stated that if they didn't disband, or stop fighting hollows than they would all be murdered. Wesker took charge and stepped forward. When Kisuke tried to stop him, Wesker simply said one thing.

"Relax. We planned for something like this."

Kisuke blinked.

_They WHAT!_

"Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, I am James Albert Wesker of the PWCD special forces. As of now, I speak for my organization." The leader of Seireitei looked at him long and hard before speaking.

"Very well. What is your answer?"

"Ours isn't so much an answer as a question." He paused. "Are you familiar with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during world war 2, roughly 60 years ago?"

This had caught the commander off guard.

"Yes. I have. We had to battle rabid hollows for 3 days straight while we hastily tried to pass on all the souls that hadn't made it over. We considered removing such a weapon from the hands of humanity but learnt that with all the different factors and difficulties involved, we couldn't possibly succeed in such a task. So instead, we simply ignored it and hoped it wouldn't be used again. What does this have to with our current discussion?"

"That was the A-bomb, a thermo-nuclear bomb flown in by plane to destroy entire cities at a time rather than waste thousands, maybe millions of lives trying to take over a city with traditional fighting. Back then, the USA was faced with achieving victory over Japan by either losing half a million men in an invasion, or using atomic weapons to force a surrender. That event was during the 1940's in standard real world time. Here we stand in the 2000's, 60 some odd years, in a similar dilemma."

Every shinigami in the room jumped out of their seat in shock and outrage. Even the captain-commander was slightly surprised by what he had just heard. Wesker continued.

"The A-bomb or Atomic bomb was the most primitive nuclear bomb in history. Several years later, the H-bomb was produced, which was approximately 100 times stronger than the A-bomb by fusing it's targets together at a cellular level rather than splitting them apart like the A-bomb did." He calmly spoke, completely ignoring the dawning looks of horror he was receiving from the shinigami. "Today, the strongest nuclear bomb ever detonated sent a shockwave across the entire planet 3 times. It was intended to be twice as strong but the Russians realized that such a weapon may cause far more collateral damage than even we could stomach. There are thousands, maybe millions of nuclear weapons varying from destroying square blocks to half of an entire continent in possession of the real world, all ready to be fired at an order, and at whatever, or whoever we think is threatening our well-being. As of today, that man is you Mr. Yamamoto."

The elderly shinigami was shell-shocked by what this human was so boldly telling him.

"You…Dare."

"I _dare_ because I know what my limits are. I know for a fact that no amount of men, air support, or technology that the PWCD _currently_ has could see this place in PWCD hands. We may not be able to defeat you _fairly_ or in a pitch battle, but here's what we can do. We can leave your bases and everyone inside them in a state that makes Huecco Mundo look beautiful in comparison. We can hunt down the straggler shinigami lucky enough to avoid being nuked out of existence and either kill them or capture and re-educate them to work for us. We can repeat this same process to Huecco Mundo and every hollow and arrancar in that world. Even with all that, our supply of nuclear weapons wouldn't even have a dent. And that's only the nuclear stockpile belonging to the PWCD."

No one said anything. What else was there to say?

"Now that we've cleared up who is _really_ in danger of genocide and eradication I'd like to re-state Kisuke Urahara's first statement but with my own little twist. We're here to negotiate peace and prosperity. We offer cooperation and understanding, or if you'd prefer, simply staying out of each other's way. The PWCD isn't particularly impartial to either one. If you reject the hand of peace, there is a nuclear bomb that has been primed and is sitting in front of a portal generator. That portal will deposit the nuclear bomb directly over Seireitei, where it'll shoot down and wipe your stronghold off the face of the earth as well everyone within 50 miles of it. As of now, that nuclear bomb is waiting for me to either not give a response in the next 2 hours or so, or give it the go ahead to fire. Alternatively, I could tell it not to fire and that the launch is canceled. In which case, the bomb will power down and remain dormant until otherwise."

Wesker stepped back and walked toward his fellow augments, which were all either beaming with human pride or considering just how insane Wesker was to pull what he just did. He took off his helmet and looked Yamamoto in the eye, with his own red eyes.

"So tell me "Balance Keeper" which call am I going to make to the Tactical Ordinance commander?"

Yamamoto was infuriated. He was insulted, belittled, and had his very pride spat on by this weakling human. Never in his life had he despised a man so much before, as he had Wesker. And he wasn't alone.

That day, many of Shinigami captains found a man that they despised even more than Aizen. What was worst was that, unlike Aizen, to even touch this man meant certain death for them and nearly everyone they loved. Captain-Commander Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto came to one of the hardest yet most obvious decisions he had ever made.

"Very well James Wesker,… _*sigh*_what are the PWCD's terms?"

You could practically here Wesker's smirk.

"The Real world and the protection of its people is our jurisdiction, but we'll allow you to continue operating as you've had before. However, you are not allowed to lay a hand on any of our operatives your forces may encounter, especially if they are in combat. If we decide to launch a nuclear winter across Huecco Mundo, then that is of our prerogative. You have no business to stop us or interfere with any hollow-based operations we conduct. In exchange, we'll leave you to your own devices, unless of course it causes a noticeable amount of collateral damage. In that case, we'll immediately intervene and end the fight as quickly as possible…Oh and before I forget, you all are under obligation to clean up any damage you cause near a population center. We can only blame spontaneous structural damage on gas leaks and structure failure for so long before someone finds proof that we're lying."

The entire time, Wesker was receiving dark looks from the Captain's and lieutenants around him. He even received such looks from Yoruichi and Kisuke, who apparently hadn't been told that the PWCD was planning on nuking Seireitei.

Avery glanced over at the two and back at Wesker. The African-American male leaned over to Jacob, who was also looking between the 3 people.

"This is gonna be an awkward ride home."

Jacob turned and looked at Avery.

"Avery. Please shut up."

…Jacob paused before speaking again.

"Acknowledging it is only gonna make it worse."

Avery chuckled a little under his helmet.

xxXxx

2008 September 10th Las Noches, Huecco Mundo

Aizen frowned.

Such a thing wasn't common for him, but indeed he did.

He and the 10 espada watched Ulquiorra's memories with rapt attention.

They saw steel birds of prey roar across the sky and leave swathes dead of hollows in their wake. The birds were each moving faster than even the faster sonido could hope to keep pace with. They saw a particularly large bird coasting high in the sky and rain down destruction on a magnitude that shouldn't even be possible. Of the 300 hollows sent, these steel birds had been responsible for killing two thirds of that number.

Then the espada watched humans in 10 feet tall armor facing down the remaining 100 or so hollows. The reiatsu these men poured out was pathetic, but they used it to great effect. The 12 of them wielding hammers all stood within at least 10 feet of the other. As the hollows came, the secondary effect of the hammers was revealed. When the human's hammers made contact, they shocked and incapacitated any hollows their electricity touched. In groups spaced out like they were, it was a slaughter. Any hollow that came was injured before they even had the chance to completely close the distance. Those that made it through the lightning field were sub-sequently busted open by a hammer swing. Not a single hollow managed to score a killing blow, or even a mildly debilitating one.

On a hill that oversaw the battle between humans and hollows were 8 more humans stood, yet they were completely devoid of reiatsu. They didn't have hammers, but they had strange weapons that blew apart hollows with some sort of yellow light. Ulquiorra explained to them what guns were, seeing as he had been on the receiving end of one during an incident with a human before. He assumed that these were simply larger and more powerful guns, and as such fired more powerful bullets. The gun that wasn't making a yellow flash, he called a sound weapon. He'd been glanced by it during the fight and was given a splitting migraine and bleeding ears, as made evidence by the vision of the battle having a man grunting in pain briefly and everything going dark for a few seconds.

After the last hollow was killed via being face planted into the ground by a lopsidedly large left hand, Ulquiorra's eye's caught sight of a battle in the distance and sensed multiple shinigami fighting.

When he sonido'd over to see why the shinigami were fighting each other, he was instead met with a 6 against 10 fight. 10 smaller humans wearing flaming back-packs were dueling the shinigami with surprising skill and brutality. The fight was fairly even the entire time. One human with a hammer was fighting a captian and not only matching, but seemingly winning against him. A shinigami was killed early on in the fight and 2 humans were killed in retaliation.

Then the humans with hammers from earlier joined the fray. A shinigami captain was nearly killed. A very powerful shinigami with impressive reiatsu was knocked out of the sky by a single sound weapon shot. The only other captain was nursing a deep wound to her chest. Taking notice of their condition, they fled. One of the humans threw a metal ball in after them.

When Ulquiorra described what a grenade was, again having prior experience, Grimmjow laughed. Apparently he could appreciate needless violence, regardless of the species that caused it.

When Aizen asked for his opinionated estimate on how many human soldiers there were like that, Ulquiorra said he was uncertain. However, he did logic that since they all looked alike, they must've put normal humans into a process that creates what they just saw. This meant there could be anywhere from the small number they just now saw to potentially thousands, maybe millions of such humans being produced.

Aizen hated unknown factors.

xxXxx

Author's note: I once saw a demotivational poster about Nukes that went somewhere along the lines of…

Nukes

The Ultimate peacekeepers. Used in WW2 and never used again.

I'm pretty sure I got it wrong, but you get the general idea. Everyone is a lot more willing for piece when you're holding the big stick. The PWCD may not be able to use this approach on Aizen though. I doubt the arrancar know what a nuke is and

"Walk softly and carry a big stick"-Theodore Roosevelt


	13. Running Silent

Author's Note:….I like squirrels!

On a later note, I saw battleship today. In conjunction with movies like Battlefield: Los Angeles, Independence Day, Terminator Salvation, and a few other normal movies about humans vs genocidal aliens/robots, I'm feeling a bit of human pride coming up! Usually when I feel that way, I dish out a chapter that reflects that (see chapters 2, 3, and 11). I shamelessly state that this chapter will be a large example of that feeling.

Enjoy the carnage!

xxXxx

**Running Silent**

2008 December 1st Las Noches

Aizen sensed a small portal open up, a few miles away from Huecco Mundo.

He was certain that he was under attack but didn't feel any reiatsu signatures exit. Not even a lowly menos class hollow exited from the portal. He briefly considered the possibility that the Soul Societies stealth force was here, but the reiatsu suppression devices they wore would've been pointless. The hollows nearby would've smelt them out by now. Even if the hollows failed to reveal them, Runuganga certainly would've.

Aizen frowned.

Something was happening. A portal doesn't simply appear by itself. Something had to have opened it. The billion dollar question for today though, was what and why?

xxXxx

"Command, this is Beta team signing in. We've entered the perimeter of Las Noches." A man's mechanically altered voice stated.

"Roger, Beta Actual. As you know, we don't have satellite coverage in this other world. This radio is our only way of keeping tabs on your men."

"Roger, Command. We're aware."

"Good. Infiltrate and setup all of the necessary equipment. On your call, we will re-open the portal and pull you out. We're counting on you commandos. Command out."

=8=8=8=8=

PWCD Database: Commandos.

It's no secret among the monster and spiritual worlds that the PWCD are the most elite soldiers of humanity. Each and every member of the armed forces is pulled from the most elite agencies and programs that humanity has to offer. Every member comes into the PWCD, already a highly trained veteran. Augmentations and standard PWCD training in addition, create the most dangerous super soldiers known to man. However, of these already elite individuals are men that fight on a plane considered beyond the already high physical limitations of an average augment soldier. Such soldiers are put through a training regime, under which any non-augment will surely die in the process of. It is gossiped around others that such training regimes make augments lose their personality. Those that complete the regime are often desensitized to near any emotion and talk of killing in the same sense a man would talk of tying one's own shoe. The commandos were the elite of the elite, but many stated that they lost their humanity in the process of becoming the best.

After they complete their training, they receive a new class of power armor, energized by a reiatsu energy cell, a quarter of the size and output of what assault terminators use. This cell purely enhances physical strength, nulling its detection from spirits and hollows. The armor is filled with a variety of features, from cloaking, to retractable hand blades, to targeting assistance. The helmets vaguely resemble narrowed down astronaut helmets, mixed with a flight mask, and with dull blue visors. The hand guards had a metal sheath over the knuckles, so that every punching motion the commando made, a 3 inch blade as wide as the hand itself would shoot out just past the knuckles to cause additional damage with every punch. In addition to artificial spirit energy, power armor, hidden blades, and the augment's very own enhanced strength, there were thermal pressure plates, similar to the ones used by standard terminators, under the finger guards of the armor. It was only a fifth as strong as the ones wielded by standard terminators but in addition to the other factors, it made every punch near instant death to almost any living creature without a form of armor.

There are currently only 5 commando teams currently in existence: Beta, Alpha, Omega, Zi, and Theta.

There are very few occurrences where any of these commando teams are called in, but when they do get called in, the missions they receive are considered beyond suicide.

=8=8=8=8=

The halls of Los Noches were virtually silent.

With the exception of the occasional arrancar, the halls were very empty due to the evolved hollows typically keeping to themselves or to their personal groups and clicks. There were no sentries, as it was assumed that any intruders could easily be detected. The sand guardian of Las Noches, Runuganga, would keep out any being that was weak enough to not be immediately picked up. To the arrancar, Las Noches was all but impregnable to infiltration.

Too bad they never took into account the possibility of hostile human infiltrators.

A quartet of man shaped heat blurs moved down the halls, soundlessly and efficiently. They were armed with M8 kondras, semi-automatic rail rifles that were scaled down to be useable for infantry. It could limitedly penetrate an arrancar's hierro, depending on the arrancar, but had the unfortunate side effect of leaving a vapor trail that could easily be traced back to the shooter, at a small glance. They also only held 4 bullets in a magazine before needing to be reloaded. It meant for them that every shot had to count, but with at least a decade worth of training and targeting assistance, missing their target at less than 1000 meters was an even larger feat for them to accomplish than hitting them.

The leading heat blur put his fist up. The commandos' helmets outlined every friendly in a neon blue light, regardless of whether they were cloaked or not. The gesture was seen and the heat blurs behind it halted immediately.

Two arrancar with only one eye each, were down the hall, conversing. One male and one female. Both had their backs against the walls opposite of each other, and were conversing. It was highly unlikely that the four of the commandos could walk right in front of them, without either of the arrancar noticing the heat blurs. That left only one option.

"Kill them. Quietly."

2 heat blurs broke off from the group and moved up next to the arrancar. The two spirits continued to chat, unaware that their lives were in mortal danger.

The male arrancar felt a pair of hands clamp around his head. He barely noticed that no one was there to be touching him, before his world spun, and suddenly went black.

The female felt four fingers dig in and push on her throat in one direction, and a thumb push in the opposite direction. Her throat was crushed, preventing her from screaming or making any noise. A knife slid past her one good eye, and into her brain.

Both bodies collapsed, one bleeding out the eye, the other's neck bent at an unnatural angle.

"Hide the bodies."

The bodies were lifted off the ground, seemingly of their own accord, and thrown out of a nearby window. The few droplets of blood left behind, were wiped off the ground by a piece of whit clothing, ripped off the bodies before that too was dropped out the window. All while this was happening, the 2 other heat blurs kept watch on both sides of the hallway. When no one came, the lead heat blur gave the order to keep moving.

(Skip forward 15 minutes of walking)

The commandos were making progress deeper into Las Noches when the commando squad leader ordered them to halt.

"This is good enough. Beta 3, place the equipment jammer here in this room and hide it."

"Roger Beta 1."

"Beta 2 and 4, watch the hallways."

Las Noches had numerous hidden cameras across the area. Despite its archaic appearance, it was deceptively advanced. With the equipment jammer in the compound, their ability to keep tabs on those who entered and exited would be compromised. For the coming operations that would take place here, this was an absolute 'must' in their war against hollows.

The augments went to their assignments. 2 commandos stood guard outside the door way. 1 commando was placing the jammer in a dark corner of the room. The squad leader placed his hand to the side of his head.

"Command, we've deployed the jammer."

"Excellent, Beta Actual. Keep us posted and proceed with caution. Now that they're blind, they'll know something's up and be looking for you. Over and out."

"Beta 1, we've got incoming."

Loud steps echoed down the hallway.

One of the most horrifying and frightening arrancar in all of Huecco Mundo walked down the hallway. His steps reverberated down the hallway to the room the commandos occupied. When the 2 commandos caught sight of the abomination, they blanched instantly and lined up their shots. Commandos were thought of as no longer being capable of feeling fear, and indeed they usually couldn't. The nightmarish creature that approached them was horrific enough to test even their resolve.

"Permission to kill, Beta 1."

"Negative, Beta 4. Let it pass."

"Sir, look at it. It deserves to die by principle."

"Beta 4… are you homophobic?"

This arrancar approaching was none other than Charlotte Cuulhourne, the first and only drag queen arrancar to walk the three worlds.

"Beta Actual, it's getting closer."

"Noted Beta 4. Everyone enter the room and wait for it to pass."

Unfortunately for them, the arrancar had been enthusiastically singing as it walked by. Beta 4 had to do everything in his power to prevent himself from jumping out and gutting the demon right then and there.

"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard! YEAH RIGHT! It's better than yours! DAMN RIGHT! It's better than yours!"

"Beta Actual-"

"Don't even think about it, Beta 4."

xxXxx

A meeting had been called by Aizen, requesting the presence of all the espada.

As the most powerful arrancar in huecco mundo made their way over to the throne room, they conversed amongst each other.

"I heard they already killed two arrancar on their way in, near the east wing."

"What? Impossible. I would've sensed them fighting."

"The arrancar weren't killed in the heat of battle. They were assassinated and dumped out of a window. There were no signs of a fight. I don't think they even realized they were being attacked when they died."

"Killing an opponent while they're unprepared? Cowardly."

The door to the throne room opened, and all of the Espada walked inside. In the center of the big empty room was a long table with 11 seats. They each chose their preferred seats and engaged in the light talking and bickering that was customary for them.

All conversation ceased when 3 sets of footsteps echoed down the hallway. All eyes went to the 3 figures coming down the hall.

Aizen, Tosen, and Gin all came in, side by side. Gin and Tosen stopped and stood on either side of the stairway. Aizen sat himself down in the final open seat, reserved completely for him.

Everyone noticed the difference in Aizen's composure. Before, he was arrogant and self-assured. Now, however, he was frowning and dead serious. He didn't even offer everyone tea, as was customary for him.

The Espada took this as a bad sign.

"As you all know, my dear Espada, we've been infiltrated."

Many eyes hardened at this statement.

"Is it the shinigami?" Nnoitra asked. He was itching for a fight.

"No. It's not. Shinigami have a strict honor code about defeating their enemies in combat. Our intruders flat out kill, regardless of how prepared any of their opponents are."

Aizen closed his eyes and placed his hands under his chin.

"I suspect they may be human."

Many arrancar's eyes widened.

"According to Ulquiorra's previous memories, this fits humanities style of fighting. From what I've seen, there are humans with the ability to turn invisible. In conjunction with their lack of reiatsu, tracking these humans is nigh-impossible."

"With your permission Aizen, I'd like to handle these humans."

All eyes turned to Ulquiorra, whose eyes were closed.

"I have the most experience in fighting them. It's only logical that I be the one to remove them." Aizen looked at him for a moment before shaking his head.

"Normally I'd agree, however these humans aren't here for a direct fight. They're sneaking around us. None of our cameras or technological equipment is responding."

"So the humans are here to sabotage us." The pink haired Espada summarized.

"Cowardly whelps. We should eviscerate them from this place immediately." The most elderly of the espada stated.

Aizen listened as the Espada began voicing their opinions of the humans, all of it either a double sided comment or outright derogatory. Aizen had something else in mind for them entirely however.

"Espada."

All conversation ceased.

"Gather your fraccion and round up some of the lower arrancar. We're going to search all of Los Noches for the humans. Capture at least one of them by any means necessary and bring the human back completely restrained. Szayel, I want you to stay behind and prep your lab for… let's call it testing. I want the human alive and well after we're done with him, however."

Szayel smirked a dark and evil grin. His tongue slithered out and lightly brushed his eyeball.

"_Gladly,_ Lord Aizen."

xxXxx

The 4 commandos were cloaked and on a knee inside the hallway's shadows. A group of arrancar jogged past their position, the leader of this group having a scythe with an incomplete "8" shaped blade. The search party didn't even notice that they just ran past their targets.

"Keep alert Beta team. They know we're here now." The leading commando stated.

The 4 heat blurs got up and continued moving against the walls in a light paced jog. Their M8 Kondras swept across the area, ready to blow the head off of the nearest target, if given the order. They steadily heard the footsteps of the arrancar group fade away, but kept alert for any more signs of movement. It was at this point they reached a fork that broke off into 3 separate directions.

*_clack clack clack clack clack clack*_ the far left passage echoed with footfalls.

"Another search party, inbound." Beta team crouch against the wall and waited for them to pass.

_*clack clack clack clack clack clack* _the commandos heard footfalls from the right passage as well.

"Beta team, get into the middle passage's shadow and wait for both groups to pass. The listening device is ideal for placement in the cafeteria area, down the right path. We move there, place down this last piece of equipment, and exfiltrate."

"Copy Beta Actual." The squad members responded to him.

xxXxx

Harribel, Apacci, Mila-Rose, and Sung-Sun were walking down the road, doing their usual thing. The 3 fraccion would argue relentlessly for a while, until she got annoyed and occasionally broke it up. A minute or two later, and they would start back arguing again.

Harribel was thankful that practically every arrancar in Huecco Mundo was looking for these humans, because her fraccion would've alerted the humans that they were coming, long before they saw them.

Harribel heard another set of footprints coming down the hall and frowned.

It was Barragan and his fraccion.

Let it not be said that the arrancar got along. In truth, with the exception of those that had special bonds as hollows such her and her fraccion, arrancar outright don't care for each other's lives. To make matters worse, she and Barragan had encountered each other as hollows once, while he was still the "King of Huecco Mundo". He demanded the she either join his army, or leave his view (where he claimed that his view extended over all of Huecco Mundo). She took the highroad and left, along with her fraccion, who were simple hollows at the time.

Needless to say, it's apparent why the two aren't particularly fond of each other.

When the two groups came into contact, Barragan and Harribel locked eyes instantly.

"Have you seen anything _tercera_." The older arrancar gruffly stated.

"No Barragan. If I had, I would've flared my reiatsu to alert everyone."

"Huh. What a load of bull." Ggio Vega stated. "We should be killing shinigami, and instead were concerned about a bunch of useless and inferior _humans_."

"I'd be careful if I were you, Vega. They killed two arrancar while they were both unaware. They obviously have no intentions of fighting fair." Sung-Sun noted.

"Please!" Vega stated he walked over to a shaded wall on the middle passage. He began leaning forward to rest against the wall "Like I'd ever let a human get the drop on-what the hell?"

The second Vega realized his shoulder wasn't touching a wall, his world spun. And then it abruptly went black.

xxXxx

Beta 3 broke the arrancar's neck the second it touched him. Beta 1 inwardly groaned at this new development. The arrancar immediately noticed the sound of a bone breaking and looked in their direction. Knowing that stealth was no longer a possibility at this point, they went into action.

"Weapons free."

_**BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!**_

4 shots raced out simultaneously. Cheng Poww had a rail-rifle round blow out a chunk of his chest. Charlotte took one to the face (no pun intended), and splayed his skull apart. Avirama had his left leg blown off at the knee. Sung-Sun had a round penetrate into her stomach.

Two flashbangs rolled in between the two groups of arrancar at the same time they were being shot.

_BANG!_

Those that weren't shot were blinded and deafened.

"Complete the objective at all costs Beta team" Beta 1 stated.

While the arrancar were left stunned and bleeding, the Commandos ran past them and down the right corridor they originally intended to go down. They dropped their active camouflage to conserve energy and began sprinting.

They took off at over 80mph. By the time any of the arrancar were able to see or think properly, the humans were long gone. Those that were able, sonido'd down the middle passage, thinking that was the direction the humans had disappeared down.

Beta 1 placed a hand on his helmet while he was running, at the cost of lagging behind his squad mates a few feet.

"Command, we've been compromised. I repeat, we've been compromised. We're moving to the final objective at all due haste."

"Roger, Beta Actual. Abort the mission the second you get in too deep. We have the portal spinning up as we speak. We expect 4 men to come back Beta actual. Do you understand?"

"Copy command. We'll complete the mission. Over and out."

The commando noticed the ground was lightly shaking.

_Reiatsu burst, I assume. Dammit._

xxXxx

"Rudobon, intercept them."

"Yes, lord Aizen."

xxXxx

The commandos were lightly winded as they entered the cafeteria area of the arrancar. It was mostly empty save for two arrancar. The two were shot in the head before they could even respond to the intrusion.

"Everyone, engage active camouflage. Beta 3, get to work on that listening device and hide it from view."

"Roger sir."

The commandos hid themselves amongst the shadows as Beta 4 got to work, setting up the device in a dark corner with his cloaking on. No one said a word, as the bodies were dragged behind counters and left to rot until someone came by to clean them up. The blood on the ground was scrubbed away with ripped pieces of the deceased arrancar's uniforms.

It seemed like a feasible plan at first. Complete the objectives, leave without a trace. Unfortunately, all battle plans never survive contact with the enemy.

"Give up hiding humans. I know you're in here."

Beta team stiffened as a proverbial army strode into the room. Dozens of arrancar with skull heads walked in. Leading them was an arrancar with a bull's skull for a head.

"I am Rudobon, and I have come for you. If you surrender, I'll be merciful and let you all live. If not, then you will die, and one of you will be captured."

_Why would they explain themselves to the enemy?_ Beta 1 idly wondered.

The commando's squad leader looked at Beta 3 and spun his index finger in circles, making the 'hurry up' motion. Beta 3 saw his superior's blue outline twirling his finger at him, and pushed a button on the small satellite dish. He placed the object against the wall and activated its own personal cloaking field. Beta 3 sent Beta Actual a thumbs up.

"Beta squad, all objectives complete. Beta 4, aim down sights on the arrancar with the bull horns. Beta 2 and 3, get ready to throw all the frags and flashbangs you have at the group. On my mark."

Suddenly, a furious Barragan sonido'd into the room, along with all his fraccion except for Charlotte and Ggio Vega. Avirama had to cauterize his bleeding stump of a leg with a small cero, and Cheng Poww was clutching a hole in his chest. Seconds later Harribel and her fraccion entered the room, with Sung-Sun also clutching a bleeding stomach.

"Damn. Reinforcements. Can any of you spot a back exit?" Beta 1 asked.

"Negative Beta Actual. The original plan may still be feasible with effective target prioritization." Beta 2 advised.

Beta 1 noticed the arrancar were spreading out across the cafeteria to find them. It was only a matter of time before someone was discovered. They had to time their attack perfectly so that the flashbangs caught all the arrancar at once but also time it so they had enough room to weasel their way through the arrancar before the full effects of the flashbangs could wear off.

"Belay that order, Beta 4. Prime your flasbangs and grenades as well."

Rudobon began to send out his clones, with the occasional arrancar fraccion dotted between them. Everyone was suspicious and waiting for the inevitable ambush that would come.

"Pull pins."

_Chink._

_Chink. Chink. Chink._

The arrancar of the room heard the sound, and their eyes widened in alarm.

"Engage."

The humans didn't disappoint.

xxXxx

Author's note: Nice to know that the people, who enjoy this fic, far outnumber the Nay-Sayers.

Quick question. I found a trick on fanfiction that lets me edit my chapters without having to rewrite them on Microsoft word or repost them. Problem is, now I can't find it. Will the more veteran writers tell me if that particular feature was removed or if I simply haven't been doing a good job looking (if so instruct me where to find it).

I'd like to re-edit all my chapters to remove all the spelling errors and verbal slip-ups but it's hard to commit when seemingly the only way to do so is to repost and re-read a small novel's worth of info then go through the process of reposting it all. Feel free to PM any questions or responses you may have.


	14. Go Loud

Author's Note: Things are about to get violent.

Commandos vs Arrancar

FIGHT!

xxXxx

**Go Loud**

2008 December 1st Las Noches

_BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!_

The sound of exploding flashbangs racked across the scattered arrancar.

Having prior experience to these, Harribel, Barragan, and their fraccion quickly shielded their eyes. That still didn't block out the deafening sound, however. Rudobon and his clones were thoroughly disoriented. Many of the clones were stumbling around on the ground, their motor skills temporarily thrown off balance. The 2 espada and their fracciones clutched their ears.

The perfect opening for a hasty escape.

The commandos were already running when the first flashbang went off. The few arrancar that were completely blocking their way with their bodies were shot in the face by the M8 kondras they wielded. Heads ceased to exist, as they were shot by certified, scaled down, anti-tank weapons. Approximately 6 Rudobon clones were killed in the armed escape.

Beta teams squad leader booted a skull head in the face, and was mildly surprised when the clone's skull caved in. Arrancar, by experience, were much more resilient than that. He hypothesized that these look alike arrancar were particularly weak among the others, and were simply cannon fodder. Ignoring the strange occurrence for now, he continued to speed through the maze of stunned hostiles. He made out the outlines of his fellow commandos sliding and weaving through the dazed enemies as well. When he noticed the bull skull headed hollow, he trained his weapon on its chest and fired. A tennis ball sized hole was carved out of the hollow's chest. He didn't give the creature a second glance as he ran past it. His squad followed behind him, quickly catching up with their enhanced speed.

The 4 humans turned down a hall just in time to avoid a powerful cero. The entire hallway disintegrated as the blackish-purple beam passed through.

The blast alone was enough for the commandos to nearly lose their footing.

_Buzzz!_

An elderly arrancar with a battle axe teleported in front of the humans with an infuriated look on his face.

"Die you filth!" The arrancar yelled before charging forward.

The massive axe swept across, horizontally. All of the 4 humans slid, rolled, or jumped over the swing. The reiatsu force of it sliced through many of the adjacent walls

The commando squad leader noted that he only had 2 shots left in his clip. He leveled his kondra at the hollow's face. From his prone position, directly beneath the battle axe wielding hollow, he couldn't miss if he tried.

_**BANG! BANG!**_

The augment watched as the rounds left his barrel. He watched as the bullets moved in sub-sonic speeds, but with enough force to carve out the hide of a tank. He watched in mute shock as one of the bullets dug a small trench into the arrancar's forehead before ricocheting off, and the other penetrate a half-inch into his jaw before outright crumpling in on itself.

_What the hell?_

Barragan flinched backward in pain. The arrancar's hand immediately went to clamp across his bleeding jaw.

Beta 2 popped back up from his barrel roll and leapt at the monster's face to launch a punch. Beta 1 watched as a 3 inch blade extended from his squad mate's knuckle sheath. The blade itself wasn't very effective against an arrancar's steel skin but in conjunction with enhanced muscle mass, reiatsu fueled power armor, and the thermal pressure plates beneath his finger plates…

_THWACK!_

"GAAAH!"

Barragan was sent reeling backward as the punch struck his forehead, the hidden blade cutting deeper into his freshly sustained wound. The thermal pressure plates burned the gash on his head to add further dizzying pain to the already fresh wound.

Beta 3 and 4 got behind the massive beast of a man, and kicked out his knees.

Before his squad could get dragged down into a needless fight, he ordered they dis-engage and keep running.

_Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!_

A legless Avirama, an angry Nirgge, and a flat out PISSED Choe Neng Poww sonido'd in their most.

The commando squad leader felt time come to a crawl as adrenaline started to fully set in. The shirtless and legless arrancar flew toward him with a raised fist. The commando sprung the punch up with an upper-cut of his own, before kicking his enemy's cauterized stump. The hollow yelled as a fresh bout of pain spiked him. The augment reached for the hollow's face and gripped the back of its jaw, putting a lot of force on the nerve that was there. While this was being done, the augment removed an 8-inch knife from his chest sheath. The arrancar was still screaming from his kick, when he rammed the knife up into its mouth. This time there was no hierro to resist his blade, and knife punched clean through the top of arrancar's mouth and into his brain.

Beta 3 had to throw himself to the side to avoid the violent attempt to bisect him. Nirgge stood there with a serious look. Beta 4 hurled a throwing knife at the arrancar from the side, and was rewarded with a shriek of pain. The knife sunk into the arrancar's eye ball, but didn't penetrate deep enough to damage the brain. Beta 3 raised his kondra and fired a single shot at the arrancar's throat. The round blew out half the fraccion's throat, gushing blood down the arrancar's chest. Beta 4 roughly punched the arrancar in its bleeding throat, his blade extending out and carving deeper into the wound. The hollow made a weak and clumsy swing to try and force the humans away, while he tried to stop from choking on his own blood. Beta 4 caught the arrancar's wrist and pushed the wrist nerve with his thumb. As a follow up, he rammed his forearm against the hollow's elbow. Even with his enhancements, he wasn't strong enough to break the bone entirely. He did, however, manage to fracture it. The hollow dropped his sword with a chocking grunt of pain. Beta 3 was up by now and kicked the back of Nirgge's knee out. The arrancar fell to one knee, his arm still being gripped by Beta 4. Said commando front kicked Nirgge's head up, his exposed throat gushing more blood out from the action. Nirgge was forcibly able to see Beta 3 raised his foot over his head, before he axe-kicked down.

**Crack.**

The arrancar's head snapped backward at a 180 degree angle, parallel with his back, and stayed there. A small fountain of blood shot up from his now completely exposed neck. You could see the bone that broke if you stared hard enough.

Both commandos released the now thoroughly dead arrancar just in time to catch the sound of someone throwing up. Looking down the hallway, they saw 4 women, of which the one with the horn was dry heaving, while two of the others looked nauseated. Around them were dozens of skull-headed arrancar, as well as Barragan, who was getting up.

Had they been just watching that entire time? If they had intervened, this arrancar wouldn't be a couple of inches of flesh short of complete decapitation.

Beta 1, 3, and 4 all jumped on Choe Neng Poww, who was trying and failing to hit Beta 2.

A throwing knife to the eye had been enough to distract the lumbering fraccion. Beta 2 was quickly prodded to keep fleeing.

Rudobon appeared at the end of the hall with a bleeding chest wound and 12 of his clones at his side. At least 2 dozen more appeared to their back. Harribel and her fraccion were content to watch the battle, as true warriors don't interfere in another's fight. The commandos slid to a stop, seeing that they were surrounded.

Commandos, PWCD personnel in general really, had no such limiting morals.

Beta 1 remembered the effect his kick had earlier.

"Be advised Beta team. These skull-heads are weaker than the average arrancar. They may have barely above that of a civilian's protection, armor wise."

The clones all sonido'd to them and came swinging.

Beta 2 caught a swung sword by the attacker's wrists and head-butted the sword wielder. The forehead bone cracked at the force of it. The augment made an upper-cut against the bone head's chin and was surprised when the head completely popped off in a spray of blood. A second clone came at him from behind. He back-fisted the sword away from his face, and rifle bashed the offender in the solar plexus. He felt its rib cage give and several organs rupture just before it was sent flying away.

The commando made a rare smirk under his helmet and slung his kondra over his back.

_Too easy._

The commando's fists launched out in blurs. Every punch sent clones back with caved in chests and faces. The rest of the squad also began to get a lot less careful in their attacks. Beta 1 side kicked a clone away before ducking under the sword swing of another. The one that had swung had its sword yanked from its hand and shoved back through its chest before it could make a noise. A clone came up behind him and made an overhead swing. Beta 1 twisted the sword out of the Rudobon clones grip and booted away a clone standing behind the one he disarmed, before stabbing the weaponless one through the back. Beta 3 had his 8-inch survival knife in a reverse grip and was surgically slashing and stabbing his way through the clones. One clone was stabbed in the heart by the knife, two others had their throats slit, and the last one flat out had a knife jammed hilt deep into its forehead. Beta 4 clothes-lined a clone with his forearm before stomping on, and crunching its head. Another clone came to try and get him with a one hand swing. He slammed his forearm into the hollow's wrist, knocking away the attack entirely. He grabbed the clone by its collar and crotch before effortlessly lifting it up in the air and turning it upside down. He threw the hollow down against the merciless stone floor, head first. The skull cracked open and the neck bent at an unnatural angle before the rest of the body came down.

Rudobon could only watch in mute shock as his clones were brutally slaughtered by these humans. He observed their skills in combat closely and came to a simple solution. He wouldn't win with simple sword play. Throwing clones at them was more just practice for them then an actual threat, if the 40 dead clones at their feet was any indication. It wasn't how many clones they killed that shocked him. He had been in fights where as many as several hundred clones died in the process. The difference was that these humans didn't use splash damage attacks. They hacked apart or broke every individual one. The humans charged forward.

Rudobon had 30 more clones appear to his defense.

The humans didn't even bother to fight them this time. They ducked and weaved through the clones effortlessly, errantly punching out one that may have happened to be in their way. The clones, try as they might couldn't manage to land a hit.

Rudobon thought they were coming for him and hastily drew his Zanpokutou.

The humans ran straight past him and turned a corner down the hallway.

"Beta team, cloak and get in shadows."

The commandos halted slipped into the shadows the walls casted on each other. Their black armor already hid them quite fairly, save for the dark blue visors. When active camouflage kicked in, they seemingly faded from existence.

_Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!_

A group of 6 arrancar sonido'd into the hallway they were cloaked in. There were no skull-heads in this group, however.

All the arrancar had swords, chakrams, axes, and other weapons drawn and were battle ready.

Arrancar lived to fight. Defeat was unacceptable. They'd be damned before they let these mere humans ambush them again.

The commandos sat there quietly, catching their breath. Augments had endurance and stamina, but not an infinite amount of it. They could push through it, but thus far they had been fighting the arrancar piece meal. To fight the full group, even if sufficiently whittled down, weren't favorable odds.

"Where are they?" Barragan growled. Blood was running down his face from the earlier forehead gash.

"They could either have run down the hallways, deeper into the east block…or"

"Or?" Choe Neng Poww asked, having yanked out that knife in his eye and crushed it in his hand earlier.

"They could be around us, waiting to ambush us once again."

"COWARDLY, DESPICABLE, HUMANS!" Barragan lost his temper and fired a weak cero across the walls on his left, causing the wall to collapse on itself. Then he turned to the right wall.

"Beta team hit the deck." Beta 1 hastily stated over his calm.

The commandos flattened themselves to the ground just before a cero washed over their head. The walls crumbled, and rubble blanketed the entire squad.

"They didn't dodge, so they aren't here. Let's keep searching. If they are ahead, Rudobon may get ambushed by them soon." The Segundo espada blandly stated.

"You care?" Harribel questioned.

"No, but the idea of humans being able to stand in the presence of an arrancar, much less fight one is sickening. Especially in the cowardly ways they do it."

Without speaking another word, Barragan and one of his last remaining fraccion sonido'd away. Findor had stayed behind to guard Barragan's block, should the intruders pass by. Harribel and her fraccion followed.

When all the witnesses were gone, the commandos rose up from the rubble Barragan had blanketed them with. They quickly shook off any lingering rock from their persons, before scanning the hallways.

"Clear." Beta 2 reported.

"Alright Beta team, the portal will open half a click from our original exit point. Keep tight and push forward."

"Roger Beta Actual." The squad droned.

The heat blurs once again slinked into their usual stealth routine.

xxXxx

"Aizen-sama we found where they are. They've so far killed 4 of Barragan's fraccion, 2 rankless arrancar, and did a number on Rudobon's clones."

"What are their capabilities, Gin?"

"Nothing reiatsu based. We both would've felt a battle that size."

"Well then, inform all of the search parties who aren't already doing so, to conform on the east block and search it from head to toe for humans."

"Yes sir."

xxXxx

"More hostiles inbound." Beta 1 stated.

The commando squad leader frowned. This whole operation was getting too crowded. That was the third group of arrancar they had encountered thus far, not counting those they had fought earlier. His team stilled and let the evolved hollows pass by wordlessly. This group was being headed by a man with an elongated fish bowl for a head.

"Command, this is Beta Team. All objectives complete and we're heading out. We were compromised however. Now they know we're here and have a vague idea where we are."

"Copy Beta team, good work. I think I can arrange for some covering fire for your escape."

"Command?"

"There's an AC-130u gunship prepping for takeoff. It'll be up in the air, flying over your position in under twelve minutes. Exit the enemy's base and be prepared for exfiltration when the gunship is cleared to engage."

"Roger Command. Beta Actual out." The squad leader looked back toward his squad, who was waiting for his orders. "Advance."

xxXxx

Out in the desert of Huecco Mundo, a small child ran about in tears, as she was being chased by two hollows and a giant hollow worm. On her head was a cracked ram's skull.

To the outside looker it would appear that she was being ruthlessly attacked, and would soon be eaten alive. In reality they were simply playing a game of "eternal tag". It was fitting since there was really nothing else to do BUT play games, eat, and sleep, out in the deserts of Huecco Mundo. They were all very enraptured in the game until they heard a strange purring/growling noise coming from high in sky.

"Hey what is that?" Pesche asked?

Everyone looked up to see an odd sight.

A "t" shaped object was flying just under the clouds, and was apparently making the loud noise. Seeing as the thing flew and growled, everyone's first guess was that it was a hollow. A very large one at that. That was until they noticed it wasn't emitting any reiatsu, which was as common and necessary to hollows as breathable air was to humans.

The giant object steadily flew higher and higher until it disappeared above the clouds, a distance that no creature, hollow or not, had ever managed fly past. What was that thing?

"Ah just ignore it! That thing is way over there. We're way over here Don'tcha know?" Dondachaka stated.

"Yea. I gwess." Nel stated, still staring at the clouds.

"Now where were we-?" Pesche asked. He was cut out by the sound of heavy gunfire.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

_BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!_

**BOOOOOOOOM!**

Explosions rocked the walls of Huecco Mundo in the distance. The 4 "friendly" hollows all jumped or belly-flopped to the ground at the loud reports of weapons fire.

Pesche managed to look up and see an odd sight. A bluish circle of light was in the distance. It was oddly…entrancing to look at. He almost completely forgot about the violent explosives going off in the very same direction.

"Hey look at that!" Pesche ran over to the mysterious object to get a better look. Dondochaka, Nel, and Bawabawa all cried out in protest.

"Pesche come back!"

"It's dangerous over there don'tcha know!"

*gurgling gibberish sounds of a giant worm*

The three went to pursue their friend.

xxXxx

The commandos leapt out the window within seconds of the first explosion.

The loud and throaty engine purrs of the AC-130u were music to Beta 1's ears. The loud reports of its weapons as it blasted holes into the structure were simple icing on the cake.

The commandos hit the ground running, abandoning their cloaking in favor of more power to the armor's physical enhancements. The faster they got out, the better.

"Portal in sight. Keep moving Beta team." Beta 1 grunted as they sprinted.

A magnificently large explosion erupted just behind them, implying someone had spotted them and tried to pursue. The support gunship more than likely hadn't killed them, but caused more than a little damage to whoever attacked. Smaller explosions tore into the side of Los Noches.

They kept running as random hollows were mowed down by minigun fire from the gunship. They kept running as the sand itself rose up behind them. The sand beast was blown open by a direct hit from the howitzer on the AC-130u's side.

So determined were they to escape, they didn't notice Aizen appear behind them until it was too late.

"Bakudo #63. Sajo Sabaku. Way of Binding."

Beta 1, 3, and 4 leapt into the portal. Beta 2 had leapt, but was ensnared in golden chains just before he reached it. The commando fell to the ground as the chain's full weight pressed on him. Before he could call for help, Aizen shunpo'd beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder. The rest of Beta team jumped back out the portal to try and save their comrade, but Aizen had shunpo'd away. He had also shunpo'd a bound and restrained Beta 2 with him.

"Command! Beta 2 has just been captured! Requesting permission to go after him!"

"Negative Beta Actual. We don't know where he's been taken, and chances of you successfully infiltrating twice in the same day are minimal. Pull back."

"Command-"

"We don't leave our own soldier. We'll be back for him."

The commandos begrudgingly accepted. They watched, longingly, as another howitzer explosion blew out a chunk of Las Noches.

No words being said, they returned back into the portal.

xxXxx

"Pesche, what are you doing! It's dangerous to be here don't'cha know?" Dondochaka reprimanded his friend. Dondochaka flinched as a "small" explosion went off less than 50 feet away.

"Yeah but look at it! A giant ball of reiatsu! It's delicious to just look at!"

Pesche leaned forward to take a bite out of the portal. Instead of that, however, his head passed straight through, and he fell forward…into the portal.

"Oh no! I'm coming Pesche, don't'cha know?" Dondochaka exclaimed.

"Pesche!" Nel cried.

*high pitched inhuman gurgling* Bawabawa said.

The 3 hollows all leapt into the portal after their friend.

It's still a mystery as to how the giant hollow worm was able to fit.

xxXxx

Author's note: Short chapter, I know. I have football practice from 4 to 8 (the main time where I sit down and write these chapters), so expect either less frequent updates, or less long chapters. My shoulders are killing me!

So Nel and her gang accidentally followed the commandos back to a potential PWCD base.

DUN! DUN!

One of the Commandos got captured.

DUN! DUN!

A lot of people died in anti-climactic ways.

DUN! DUN! DU-Ok I'll stop now.

Just as a form of forewarning, there are well over two dozen named and characterized people on both sides of the winter war. There is no way I'm doing a climactic death scene for every single person I kill off. I don't even intend for the winter war to end as "messily" as it ended before. Just as a form of spoiler, anyone who actually liked the arrancar characters more than they liked the shinigami characters don't have to fear for as many of them being killed off, as the manga and anime did them. I always felt kinda bad for them, how they had hard miserable lives to begin with, then found hope in Aizen, who in the end betrays them all. Then in the manga, the Quincy come back and enslave them afterword. It's like they can never catch a break.


	15. Displaced

Author's Note: I notice I've been giving Rosario Vampire the cold shoulder lately. What with all the spirit vs human drama going on, the RV series is lucky to get an honorable mention in a conversation. I promise to update Tsukune's progress next chapter. Or completely break it off into its own story.

Hmm. No one really noticed the last chapter. Thus far, every chapter averaged 7-10 reviews. Last one got about 4. Meh. Either way I'm happy at how popular this story has gotten. It rivals or even surpasses some of the stories that I read and re-read almost daily. Thanks for the support everyone! Spending hours typing and editing is only truly rewarded by encouraging words and criticism.

Oh and as an update to the voting: People in favor of open war are in first, closely followed by people who don't want to see the Black op fighting end. Vote now, because I'm quickly approaching the climax of this story where either a huge multi-species melee brakes out, or the secret war continues.

Chapter Challenge: Find the Men in Black 3 reference. (if you haven't seen the movie, you won't recognize it)

On with the story!

xxXxx

**Displaced**

2008 December 2nd Undisclosed location, Japan.

Pesche was uncomfortable to say the least.

He was buried under Dondochaka, Nel, and Bawabawa all at once! He couldn't feel his legs anymore. The 4 hollows all writhed and struggled to get untangled from each other, grunting, yelping, and ordering each other to move. Pesche just managed to pop out his legs and stand up straight. He got his first look of his surroundings.

*click*

*click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click*

Then he promptly sat back down.

The other hollows halted their movements at the numerous clicking sounds and looked up.

Humans were everywhere. In front of them stood 3 massive, armored humans, all of them around 7ft 6 in height at the shortest. Those humans were pointing large metal rods at them. Behind those humans stood a little under a dozen smaller humans, wearing similar uniforms and pointing smaller rods at them. And then behind those humans were numerous people that weren't seemingly armed for combat and weren't pointing something presumably dangerous in their direction. That certainly didn't mean they couldn't be dangerous, however.

"Some hollows followed us back. Kill them all."

Bawabawa coiled up in the fetal position. Nel started crying.

"Hold fire! It's just a kid!"

The Beta squad leader turned to look at who stopped him. He was a rather short and surprisingly built Japanese man. He wore a blue and black uniform with 'H.S.F' on his right sleeve. It was the captain of the headquarters security force. The commando didn't like what he was hearing from this man.

"You're prepared to kill a bunch of cowering and defenseless hollows?" The man questioned.

"Yes. They're hollows. We're _supposed_ kill their kind on sight." Beta 1 stated flatly.

"I won't stand by while you murder defenseless people, _augments_." He spat the last word like a bad taste out of his mouth. The commandos couldn't care less for the man's views of them.

"Then what do you suggest we do with them? Let them stay here and work a desk job?" Beta 3 interjected.

"Yeah! We'd appreciate that!"

All the humans in the room were slightly startled at the voice. Everyone's heads whipped toward the speaker with a mix of hostility and curiosity. Pesche nervously rubbed the back of his head and started fingering his collar nervously. It was sufficiently harder to speak when you had the spot line beaming down on you as hard as this.

"…Is it hot in here or is it just me?" He weakly asked.

"A feral hollow that talks. That's new." The HSF commander stated. "So tell me. What are you doing here?" The man had walked up to the hollows. All of the humans with firearms tensed at the captain's proximity to the dangerous spirits.

"Wait a minute. You can see them?" Beta 4 stated, not initially catching on at first to the hollows being visible to the unaided human eyes. The HSF captain responded to the commando's question.

"We found out that humans could see hollows in areas with a high saturation of reiatsu. The residue portals leave is as high a saturation of reiatsu as we can get close to without hazardous side effects." Man stopped his explanation and returned his attention to the hollows. "Now about that explanation."

Pesche looked over at his friends for support. They all looked back with a 'you got us in this mess' look. Even Bawabawa, who was lacking eyes, managed to convey that look.

Pesche sighed before looking at the seemingly friendly person.

"Weelllllllllll, I saw a pretty bright light in the distance….I ran over to investigate it….I tried to eat it…" The HSF captain cocked an eye brow. "And we sorta ended up crashing into here."

The commandos glanced at each other at the ridiculous answer. It seemed too…animated to coincidentally happen the way it did, but considering these hollows were pretty animated themselves, it made a little sense.

The HSF commander bought it at least. Since this was his jurisdiction, the commandos weren't in line to argue.

"Beta team, go make your report to operation command. We'll handle it from here." The commandos nodded and began walking off. "And for what it's worth, I'm sorry about what happened to your comrade."

"Don't be. Those arrancar took him alive. You should be sorry for his capturers when he gets free." The Beta team leader stated with confidence before vacating the area.

The entire time, Nel cowered against the bodies of Dondochaka and Bawabawa, holding them for personal comfort.

Humans were scary.

xxXxx

After a rather annoying fiasco, the 4 hollows were relocated and placed in a large empty room, previously reserved for vehicle and power armor repairs.

Armed security personnel with ecto-vision goggles stood guard vigilantly around the room. Seeing all the passive aggressive faces being made at them, the 4 hollows knew to stay out of trouble. To do otherwise would be a certain way to get these humans angry. After being locked in for an hour and a half, however, complaints started mounting.

"What are they going to do with us?" Pesche asked.

"Well that one human seemed nice, so we may not have to worry about being hurt, don't'cha know?" Dondochaka reasoned.

*sniff*

Both Dondochaka and Pesche looked in the direction of the sound.

Nel was quietly sobbing to herself, as the affectionate hollow worm coiled around her for comfort. Pesche and Dondochaka immediately rushed to her side, concern written clearly across their fac-…masks.

"Are you hurt Nel. You can tell us what's wrong, dont'cha know?"

"Yeah Nel, why are you crying?"

"Humans are the scawy! They wanna hurt Nel!"

"No they don't. I wouldn't have been called had that been the case."

Everyone turned to look at the speaker. It was a strange man with a white and green striped hat. He was wearing a sophisticated business suit, and had 2 security guards standing next to him. He also wasn't wearing those glowing blue goggles like the guards were, yet he could still hear and see them.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Kisuke Urahara! I don't strictly work for the PWCD but rather "with" them. They told me that some surprisingly friendly hollows showed up somewhere they shouldn't be, and asked me run a few tests on them." The hollows began cowering in fright, while Nel started crying again.

Kisuke realized that he should've phrased that better.

"No. Not test like _that._ I'm a friendly doctor, not a mad scientist!"

"…"

"…"

One of the guards coughed.

"Well anyway, I'm here to help you. The fact that the augments didn't just shoot you means they don't have any desire to hurt you."

"Wait a sec. You're a shinigami! Why should we trust you, dont'cha know?" Dondochaka accused, pointing with an unnaturally large hand.

"EX-shinigami. To answer your other question, we haven't forced you to do anything even though we easily could've. What other choice do you have other than to simply trust we aren't dangerous?" Kisuke stated.

Pesche and Dondochaka saw his logic and begrudgingly accepted it. They weren't exactly in position to bargain for anything.

"Well then what _are _you gonna do with us?" Pesche asked. Kisuke walked up to the arrancar with a big smirk and started patting him on the head like a house broken pet. The rest of the hollows and more than a few of the security guards looked at him weirdly.

"I'm gonna give you all a checkup, fix up any injuries you have and then the PWCD's gonna send you back to Huecco Mundo. Does that sound nice?"

Pesche, Dondochaka, and Nel glanced at each other and shrugged. Bawabawa just started making weird noises.

"Alright…I guess that's okay." Pesche slowly stated, as if carefully picking his word.

"Great! Now then…Who's first?"

No one put their hand up.

xxXxx

Las Noches

Aizen was very pleased with himself as he turned to his protégé.

Szayel had the augmented human chained down to an operating table in full armor and possibly armed with more than a few hidden weapons. Since he didn't know enough about human tech to remove it properly, he decided that he would simply cut through it. Aizen made the mad doctor promise that the human would survive with no ill effects by the time he was done. Szayel frowned a bit at how much that would limit him, as far as studying the human, but agreed. Aizen fully intended to use this human as a bargaining chip, and that couldn't be done if he poked the wrong area and made this human soldier a vegetable for the rest of his life.

Now that the business of getting a human specimen was complete, he had to go about the other kinks in his plans.

Aizen had sent out multiple arrancars to look for the jammer the humans had set up in his base. They were interfering with his ability to communicate with others in the real world.

If this attack was to work, he'd need cannon fodder troops from the real world to help. At this moment Tousen entered the room.

"Lord Aizen, I was able to get a clear channel to the real world, despite the jammer they placed."

"Can the humans trace it?"

"Yes but they won't be able to find it within the millions of other channels in the real world."

"Well, I suppose that's better than what I was expecting. Is _she_ on the line?"

"I can patch you through now if you wish, Aizen-sama."

"Would you please?"

"As you wish, Lord Aizen."

Aizen placed the small device against his ear and waited. There were light buzzing noises coming through from the other side for a moment, before the sound of a phone being picked up came from the other side.

"Hello my dear. I'm sorry to have delayed you for so long."

"About time you called. I was beginning to think you were assassinated." A female with a deceptively happy tone stated.

"I'm hurt that you think so little of me." Aizen stated in a mock offended tone.

"Stop playing around, will you. I need to know if you're ready. Without your support, we'll likely be exterminated in a matter of weeks after we strike. Maybe even days."

"Don't worry my dear Gyokuro. I've built up my forces, with ample reserves. Now that I've probed them with a weak hollow invasion, I'll know what to expect. As of now, the hollows and arrancar are waiting for my order to invade."

"Good Aizen. With this attack, humanity will be cleansed from Japan forever."

"Cleansed? We'd only be striking a slightly debilitating blow to humanity with the loss of Japan. They'd simply come in force and take it back." Aizen paused for effect. "We'd need a far more…widespread attack to successfully push against the humans."

"How so?"

"We'd need to force ALL of the humans on the defensive, not just a tiny fraction of them. The PWCD has far more bases in other parts of the world than just Japan. And besides that, there are the shinigami we need to worry about."

"You yourself said there aren't enough hollows in all of Huecco Mundo to overrun the entire human species in a direct fight. So how do you plan to launch a global attack without sufficient numbers to defeat either the humans or the soul society?"

"I simply said that we would launch an invasion, not that we'd have to win. I have a plan in motion that will commence at the start of the attack. A plan that'll see humanity on its knees by the time I'm done. I just need you and fairytale ready to signal the attack, and then go to hiding once more. I'll handle the rest and instruct you on what other measures need to be done."

"Very well. And remember to keep your end of the deal Aizen."

*click*

She hung up on him.

The man chuckled to himself at how easily manipulated this woman was. The recruitment of some of his arrancar required much more effort than this, and they were all desperate to be led by someone long before he showed up.

And to think, she believed he would actually try to wipe out humanity after this.

Oh no. After seeing the effectiveness and potential an average, reiatsu-less, human could reach, he decided that humanity would indeed have a place in his new world.

If nothing else, he'd farm them for augments, super soldiers, and weapons to enforce his rule.

Aizen sighed. He was getting way ahead of himself. Before he could think about such matters he would have to worry about forcing them into submission. Due to their unique position in the world, that'll be trickier than he originally thought.

xxXxx

Japan undisclosed location

Neliel Tu Odershvank was finally awake.

She sat up in a hospital bed, feeling horrible. She had a splitting headache, a few gaps in her memory, and an odd craving for chocolate milk.

Where the hell was she?

"Wow…I'm better than I thought."

She opened her eyes at the voice and saw a gawking blond haired man in a lab coat and white and green stripped hat. She remembered him…Kisuke! That was his name. Standing around him were 2 similarly dressed doctors, one male and one female. Both were gawking at her as well, though she noted the male was literally a step short from drooling. She didn't know either of their names but their faces were vaguely familiar.

What was their problem? Had they never seen a woman with E-cup breasts before?

"Um why are you all staring at me like that?" Neliel asked. Neither of the doctors could formulate a response.

"Well…uh…when we fixed that crack on your hollow mask fragment, we weren't expecting you to…mature…so fast. Yeah! Let's call it that!"

"Well, it happened. No need to get too bent out of shape about it. Thank you for helping me like this though."

She made to get up and throw off the covers, but he hastily stopped her.

"What?"

"Well how do I put this without offending you? You matured and grew up. Your clothes however…"

Her eyes snapped down immediately. Literally nothing but green rags protected her decency beneath the blanket of the bed.

She squeaked and hid deeper under the covers. By this time the female doctor snapped out of her surprise and looked at her male counterpart. He was still out of it, so she clamped his mouth shut. He blinked and tried to play off the fact that he had just ogled a seemingly under-aged girl, no jokes intended.

Kisuke tactfully removed his doctor's jacket and handed it to Neliel, who gratefully took it and wrapped herself in it, before getting out of bed. While she slipped into it more comfortably, Kisuke walked out the door and said something to someone she couldn't see.

"SHE'S WHAT!"

"REALLY!"

*EXCITED GURGLING*

The good kisuke was bowled over by 3 excited looking hollows as they ran up and hugged Neliel in a cheerful, and tear filled group hug.

Well that wasn't entirely accurate. Bawabawa got caught in the doorway and could only manage to affectionately rub her with its face. Kisuke was stuck under the worm, crying out for help. The PWCD guards stood by, not entirely sure what was even happening anymore. They were content to simply stand there and watch the scene from their peripheral vision. The doctors in the room excused themselves out, leaving through one of the doors that weren't occupied by a giant worm.

The HSF commander came walking by and stopped.

He looked at his guards with a raised eyebrow, as he saw a hollow worm with its head caught in a door, laying on Kisuke, who was wildly flailing his arms for help.

They shrugged.

He chuckled and kept walking. There were some instances where ignorance was bliss. He couldn't tell if this was one of them, but he decided not to take that chance.

xxXxx

Neliel, Pesche, Dondochaka, and Bawabawa all sat still in the large empty room they were previously in as Kisuke explained to them what exactly the PWCD was and what they did, with the HSF commander present.

Neliel was impressed. Humans that not only apposed, but won against monsters and spirits that no one realistically expected them to be able to fight. She had heard of a similar group called the Quincy, but that was more vague gossip. And from what she did gleam from the gossip, they were whipped out for what they were doing, by the shinigami. When she asked why the shinigami didn't attempt to do the same to the PWCD, Kisuke's expression soured and he explained what nuclear bombs were, and told her the PWCD threatened them with one. Her fraccion/friends laughed rather loudly at the knowledge the shinigami had gotten shown up. A look at Kisuke's face and they stopped. This intern, made the HSF commander laugh and pat Kisuke roughly on the back.

"Well, now that you're up to date with the worlds around you, what are you going to do now?" The HSF commander asked.

Neliel frowned and mauled over the question rather intensely. It was clear she couldn't return to Las Noches, or anywhere in Huecco Mundo really since she was tricked, defeated, and branded a deserter. The exequias or execucciones, or whatever Rudobon called himself would hunt her down relentlessly with his army of clones. Soul Society would kill her and her friends on sight. That left only the real world… She looked at the HSF commander and Kisuke with a smirk. Both of the Japanese men glanced at each other warily.

"Kisuke and Mr…"

"Just call me Chief. Everyone else around here does."

"Well then, Mr. Urahara and Mr. Chief, where can we apply?"

"What?" They both asked.

"I'd like to work for the PWCD. You "hired" a shinigami and more than a few youkai didn't you? I don't see why you'd turn down the services of the former third Espada and her fraccion."

Both men could only gawk in surprise.

One of the guards coughed again.

xxXxx

Author's Note: Well here's the big plot twist I've been waiting to play for quite some time now. Aizen and his arrancar/hollow army are secretly working with the Youkai terrorist that got mentioned a couple times earlier. Since I don't feel like waiting to say this, here are your choices.

Option A: The major fighting breaks out somewhere in the monster realm, Huecco Mundo, or Soul Society. Everything is kept under wraps fairly well.

Option B: the major fighting breaks out in the human realm. Everything is out in the open and brought to light.

Either way, a lot of people's homes are getting f*cked up by the end of this story

Both will have fairly similar endings, but there's going to be notable differences in the two. For example, option A may see the PWCD president quietly thanking a group of non-humans for their assistance in the war. Option B will have it as a worldwide peace ceremony.

Befoe anyone asks no neither of these scenes are promised to happen. It was just an example.


	16. Sheep in Wolf's clothing

Author's Note: To break up the monotony of action after action and scheming after scheming, here's a comic relief chapter! This goes backward in the timeline, 2 months before the incident involving human commandos in Las Noches.

I should probably make an actual voting pole rather than just counting reviews but f*ck it. I'm too lazy. The options between hidden warfare and world war 3, with monster and spirit involvement, is actually tied right now (5 to 5). Next chapter after this is going to start building up into either one or the other, so hurry up and vote!

xxXxx

**Sheep in wolfs clothing**

2008 October 6th Youkai Academy, Japan.

Beep.

Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

_THWACK!_

Tsukune never did consider himself a good morning person.

The young Japanese boy got out of bed and began his normal ritual for getting ready for school. He went out his room, ignoring the maimed alarm clock in his room, and the various students running around in their true forms or partially in their true forms. For reasons he couldn't readily figure out, he hardly even cared anymore.

He made a rather interesting case for his true form when people would ask. He said it was a secret. If someone pushed for an answer he'd usher this phrase "well if I didn't have a true form then I'd be a human. Seeing as I'm not dead or abducted yet, I'm not a human." Then he'd end the phrase with a curse word, a variation of "go away", or more commonly just end it there. It caused suspicion, but people just assumed he was brutally logical and left it at that.

Tsukune glanced over to his side and looked at some of the monsters running around.

_Why do a lot of these monsters look like half animal, half humans? This is probably how the furries started._

With that disturbing though in his head, he dunked his head in the bucket of water to fully wake up.

xxXxx

Echo team had been called back hours ago. It was a vast waste of resources to guard a single boy as he went to highschool. So instead, a deal was made. The PWCD president informed the school principle, 'The Exorcist', of this development involving a human student who had adapted surprisingly well to current events. Rather than abducting him or swearing him to silence, he planned to test just how efficiently human and Youkai youths could work together. The Exorcist liked the idea and they agreed to it, on the condition a single augment would be announced to work in the staff. This was simply a cover for the augment's true purpose of guarding the human boy.

When the staff was informed that one of the infamous human super soldiers would be regularly working as a part of this school, they were either in an uproar, happy for the development, or (the minority) couldn't care less. When they asked what this human could possibly be doing here for work, the Exorcist said he'd be the school's "resource officer". In other words, he was an adult given the authority to escort kids to the office for punishment by the principal's hand, and apprehend them if they tried to escape. They had the same or an equivalent at most human high-schools, but the wording of it, made him sound like some kind of secret police. Such things, he absolutely hated.

When others argued that the public safety commission was doing that job already, the principal replied that even though he didn't actively try to stop them, they were probably just making things around the school worse.

The name of this mysterious resource officer was Eli.

He was one of the most lethal, yet better tempered of the augments. This made him a prime candidate, but since he was part of a squad already, he'd occasionally be pulled for other missions. He didn't let word of either of those reputations spread, though. He rather liked having monsters watch him with a sense of dread and interest, but not so much that they would be either terrified of him or quick to 'befriend' him. His readily apparent Jamaican descent (brown skin tone, chest length dreadlocks, and oddly colored grey/blue eyes), along with his height, made him stick out more than enough in his opinion.

xxXxx

Tsukune walked to school from the boy's dorms, thinking about random subjects to get him through the 5 minute long walk. He then heard a group of boys talking from behind his back. He turned around to listen better when he caught the word "Her".

"_Hey look! Its her!"_

"_Oh yeah that new student. Moka."_

"She's so hot it should be illegal!"

Tsukune cracked a smirk. The last guy to talk didn't even try to whisper like his friends. He just yelled it out.

_Scrub. _Tsukune labeled the man.

Moka came walking down the dirt road in her usual prance. Tsukune thought it was kind of funny how Moka would obviously hear statements about how 'hot' she was, or equally how 'dead' he was when they walked down the hall. It wasn't that she heard it that it was funny, but that she simply didn't react to it. She didn't glance over, break stride, cough nervously or anything! It was like her mind was set to only hear specific words from specific people, and everything else just flew in and out her ears….

Okay 'funny' probably isn't the right term to describe this, but he didn't want to mentally insult the only nice person he's met so far in this whole school.

Then she caught sight of him and began moving forward a bit faster.

_Glomp incoming in 3…2…1…_

"Tsukune! It's so nice to meet you!"

Tsukune had to choke back a laugh as she ran past the three guys from earlier with open arms, straight into him. Why exactly they thought she would run up and hug a group of people she didn't know, he was unsure. He didn't doubt she would probably do something like that, but for them to assume it before they actually met her didn't really make sense.

As they began walking, with Moka forcibly taking his arm, Tsukune heard the other guys arguing about how they would get rid of him to get to her. Tsukune had to wonder why people always decided they had to beat him up to date her. Was that some kind of monster thing, or just an idiot thing? Tsukune never once met a girl that found a guy beating up their boyfriend 'hot'. Then he caught the part about how he supposedly beat Saziou up.

_Wait what? How'd that spread so fast in one day! I didn't tell anyone. That auggie thingy couldn't have told anyone. I doubt Saizou would get beat up and go around bragging about how the wrong person beat him up. Moka….._

_It's like this girl is _trying_ to dig me a deeper grave._

Moka got tired of her friends sluggishness and outright grabbed his hand before dragging him away to class.

Tsukune sighed as he listened to those lesser men brake down in tears behind him.

No one noticed the suspicious looking bluenette that was hiding behind a tree.

xxXxx

"Tsukune."

"Hmm?"

"I imagine you're feeling kind of lonely, being surrounded by monsters."

_Not really. I'm actually a little curious, if anything. So many questions._

"So if you ever need anything, just ask! I'll help however I can!"

"Ooookay? Thanks."

"You know, I actually haven't had time for breakfast."

She lightly fell against him, acting faint. Tsukune caught her, worried for her health.

_Why do I get the feeling I'm going to regret catching her? She's just a harmless, little gir-_

She mumbled something before she leaned in and bit his neck. The Japanese boy was surprised by the sudden action and yelled out in pain.

_DAMMIT! Grandpa was right about most women being blood suckers! He probably didn't mean it so literally, but still!_

"You can't just bite me like I'm your breakfast!" Tsukune hastily took off before she could go for seconds.

"Oops. Sorry." She stood there with a rather embarrassed look on his face. She didn't quite understand the inherent human dislike of drawing blood…

That or she was just _really _airheaded.

xxXxx

Tsukune stood at a clearing in the surrounding forest poking at his bruise. He always found it curious how she could bite him and draw blood, but it wouldn't leave any holes or wounds. Was that some kind of vampire power?

He suddenly heard a gasp.

"Huh?"

He turned and looked at a girl that was on kneeled over on the ground. She had blue hair and a rather non-standard uniform on. He could tell she was pretty just from the side view, but remembered that she was a monster. He was already catching hell from just being friends with a vampire girl. Who knew what sort of problems could come from this? Inevitably though, Tsukune considered himself a nice guy. As such, he had to help anyone who was hurt and alone. The fact that it was a pretty girl was just extra encouragement. Or possibly discouragement.

"Please help me." The woman weakly gasped.

Tsukune noticed that was the same type of voice Moka had used seconds before biting him in the neck. He made a conscious effort to keep at arm's length, just in case.

"What's wrong with you? Hurt ankle? Dizzy? Sick?"

"I'm a little dizzy." She said just before she looked up into his eyes.

Tsukune realized that this was either really good or really bad when he realized she had at least D-cup breast, and rather nice figure. Neither of those traits was at all common in Japanese women. They tended to just be skinny.

"Can you help me up?" She asked in her mock weak voice.

Wordlessly, Tsukune picked the woman up from the ground, by her shoulders. She was almost a whole head shorter than him, and nuzzled her head to the crook of his neck.

"Well if you're alright, I should be getting to class."

_So much for staying at arm's length. Well I better go before Moka does something to make every guy in the school go crazy…like drop a pencil._

It seems this woman had other plans however. Tsukune felt her breast press into his chest, and was caught off guard. When she began to _rub _her chest into his he decided to get out of there before something bad followed. Something he noticed that seemed to be typical whenever monster women tried to cuddle with you.

"Are you alrgiht?" She asked, as if she didn't notice the unnecessary body contact at all.

"I'm fine. Are you? You looked dizzy for a second." Tsukune quickly played off the shock. He couldn't let a pair breast scare him that badly or else he'd be just as bad as those tools in anime cartoons, that somehow always wind up getting a harem on accident. Even when they try pretty hard not to.

…_.Why do I feel like I'm about to make a horrible mistake?_

"Well could you walk me to the nurse's office, in case I fall again?" She sweetly asked.

"Sure" Tsukune said nonchalantly. On the inside, he was starting to get nervous. He didn't have a good track record with women who liberally used their bodies. Or rather his grandpa didn't, and told him dozens of stories about what to fear.

Kurumu frowned. This would be a little harder then she thought.

xxXxx

Tsukune and the mysterious bluenette walked down the hall. It was with some regret, he remembered that this was the exact spot where he got attacked by Saziou, before he mysteriously fainted.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble Tsukune."

"No, it's quite al- wait how do you know my name?" He interrupted himself.

She simply gazed at him oddly. He looked back at her with a steadily more suspicious look on his face.

She broke out into a forced smile and projected her voice a bit.

"Well we're in the same class right?" She rhetorically asked.

"We are?" Tsukune thought back to the previous morning. He _did_ recall seeing a blue-haired girl that seemed to be staring at him the entire class period. Between the classmate next to him being a cannibal, and feeling like he was being watched by the trees, he couldn't find the time to look back or address the issue. He found himself suddenly wishing he had.

"There! You see?"

"See? What am I supposed to be seeing again?"

When he asked this, she paused and started laughing, despite him being entirely serious when he said that.

_My grandpa would be telling me to start running right now. _

The bluenette suddenly fainted and fell forward. Tsukune immediately caught her out of reflex.

"Whoa! Are you ok?"

"I'm sorry. It's because of this weird condition I have with my body. Every now and then my breasts will cramp up."

_Wait, what? Breast cancer doesn't do that to people? And what does that have to do with feinting?_

"Your breasts?"

"Yeah! They get all tight like their being squeezed or something! It feels like it's going to pop open!" As she said this, balanced on one foot and started grinding her chest into his. Tsukune's male hormones caused him to freeze on the spot.

_Abort! ABORT! __**ABORT!**_

As she continued grinding, she just went on and on about her breast being swollen and tight. Tsukune realized that this wasn't as 'friendly' a trip as he thought.

With that in mind, he bolted right past her and down the hall. She lost balance and fell forward. She caught herself and truned to see a smoke trail.

Tsukune heard Moka's voice back there as well. When he realized he would've been trapped between breasts and fangs that leave hickeys, had he stayed still, he only sprinted down the hall faster.

Both women looked down the hall in confusion. Moka, not being as surprised by his tendencies to run away, chased down the hall after him.

The bluenette simply sat there, as if wondering what the hell just happened.

xxXxx

Eli didn't consider himself particularly busy at the moment.

As the new resource officer, he made his rounds around the school, wearing PWCD issued fatigue pants, and a sleeveless muscle shirt. With 2 sabres strapped to his lower black and a tattoo of a complex circular maze on his left shoulder, he looked more intimidating than even the most dangerous monster in this school. The fact he was 7ft 4 while the tallest kids in the school were lucky to reach 6ft, also helped.

Crowds of monster students parted from him as he walked through, many of them speaking in hushed murmurs. While augments were as well-known as vampires, they were twice as rare to actually see in this day and age. They were more comparable to boogeymen than visible threats, and the PWCD enjoyed that view. It meant that when they did show up, monsters were liable to actually surrender at a show of force. Eli stood a whole head and shoulders over the tallest kids in this school (when in human form), so every hallway he walked down immediately silenced any activity.

Eli heard rapid footsteps behind him and glanced backward.

He turned around, and to his surprise saw that it was the boy that he was sent here to secretly protect. He found it rather convenient that Tsukune Aono would run straight to him on his first day.

That was until the boy didn't slow down.

Eli's hand quickly lashed out and landed on the still running Tsukune's shoulder. Even without power armor, the man was plenty strong enough to stop this, would be, charge cold. The boy suddenly flinched back when he realized someone had stopped him. Tsukune looked up and stared at the massive human being with a renewed sense of awe. He had to crane his neck 45 degrees just to see the man's head!

The Jamaican augment was pretty sure that he wasn't _that _scary up close. Shrugging it off, he spoke.

"Slow down child. You could get hurt, running down the hallway."

_Is it racist for me to be surprised that he didn't end every other word with "man"? _

Moka came charging in right behind him. Eli prepared to halt her the same way he had with Tsukune, but she skidded to a stop the moment she realized what she was running towards. Her eyes narrowed and she immediately ran up to Tsukune's side. She clamped down on his arm and positioned herself in between the human and the super human. This entire time, she didn't break her glaring eye contact with the dark skinned Jamaican.

She was prepared to see the good in humans like Tsukune. She'd have to be eased into humans of other nationalities, and monster hunting humans a lot more gradually though. Mixes of both scared her on several different levels.

Eli turned his questioning look to Tsukune, who only shrugged in confusion in response. He was just as surprised by her defensiveness as the augment was. He felt both relieved and confused when the augment gave him a small and knowing smile, just before walking away.

A vampire defending a human with her life, from a super human. Irony doesn't begin to describe it.

_That was weird._

…

_You can let go now Moka._

"Moka. My arm? I think it fell asleep." Tsukune complained. Moka still glared at the super human's back but released Aono's arm.

"That was a human augment."

_You think? _"Yeah. I figured. He seems nice though."

"But he's a super soldier. All they do is hurt monsters."

"Moka, humans _do_ have individual personalities. I guess I can't blame you for not liking augments though." Tsukune colorfully remembered what he dubbed to be "Evil Moka", getting flicked with water like a disobedient house dog, by that human augment. He would've laughed had the situation not been so…hostile.

xxXxx

Tsukune never felt so awkward in a class room.

Behind him was Moka, and to the left her was the bluenette, whose name he didn't manage to get. It was convenient where they were all sitting, because the two women were glaring at each other from the corner of their eyes.

Tsukune decided he didn't like the feeling of women fighting over him. No matter who won or how uninvolved he was, he'd inevitably feel like the jerk when all was said and done.

Unless, of course, they both spontaneously became friends even after both acknowledged they were after the same guy….

…..

_HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH! As if that'd ever happen!_

Before Ms. Nekonome could finish up her lesson, the bell rang. She seemed vaguely disappointed, before shrugging and walking out, humming the song from that old cat food commercial all the while.

xxXxx

Tsukune didn't like getting into volatile situations as a rule.

When he saw Moka and what's-her-face apparently arguing about something that might cause every nearby male about to catch a heart attack, he decided to investigate. Prior experience told him to just walk the other way but he didn't want to get to class in the morning and find one or both of the girls had gone missing. Forever.

"Hey Moka, what's going on? Why are all these guys staring?" He distinctively ignored the guy that just said 'this is getting good'.

"Tsukune I-" Moka started.

"TSUKUNE!" She was cut off as the blue haired girl glomped him.

"Um sorry miss, but can you explain what's going on here?" Tsukune asked, slightly pushing the woman away. He made the mistake of making eye contact with her.

"Charm."

Tsukune's eyes widened just before they dulled. He now had a strange look on his face, like he was deeply in love and hopelessly confused at the same time.

Moka watched on, noticing something was off.

"On second thought, I guess I don't really _need_ to know." Tsukune stated, his voice sounding a tad more aloof than can be considered normal.

"Tsukune get away from her now!" Moka excalimed

"Why would I do that?" Tsukune drunkenly asked.

"You have to believe me! She's dangerous!"

"Now that I think about it, Tsukune smells really good. Almost like a _human._"

_How does everyone in this school know what a human smells like! _Tsukune may have lost control of most of his mind, but the little that was left over happened to include his conscious thought process.

"His blood must taste really good, which is why you keep him around right?"

_As much as I'd like to say that makes sense, Moka lacks the…personality, yeah let's call it that, to even think up such a bitch move. Much less actually carry it out for about a day and a half without letting something slip. YOU, on the other hand…_

Moka flinched at the woman's statement.

"That's not true! I don't use him either!"

_What the hell is wrong with me? I would've said something by now about this! Why isn't my mouth working? Why isn't my body working? Is this some kind of monster power? SAVE ME, GIANT BLACK GUY!_

xxXxx

Eli sneezed.

He looked at the gymnasium where he was helping members of the sword fighting club learn advanced sword tricks. He blinked briefly before shrugging it off. It was probably just some form of dandruff.

He blocked an overhead swing before sweeping his opponents feet. He watched in slight amusement as the student complained about landing on his tailbone.

xxXxx

"You just wanna be my friend because you wanna suck my blood." Tsukune droned. Moka's eyes widened and her mouth opened in a state of shock.

_What? Why did I just say that? I wasn't even thinking about that! More importantly, why do I sound like an emo with Down syndrome? _

"I'm just a substitute for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Moka."

Tsukune had to admit that having the urge to strangle himself was a weird and new experience.

_And my voice just went from Emo with Down syndrome to robot programmed to only say personal insults. I wonder if this is how Hitler felt._

"That is NOT true Tsukune!" Her face reddened with frustration.

_I KNOW Moka! I'm not saying any of this….well, maybe I am, but I wouldn't say that to you….out loud….When you didn't deserve it._

She slowly but surely broke down, before running away and crying.

_Moka wait! Come back! _

The girl from earlier had watched it all. Then she did something weird. She started laughing…like a comic book villain.

"Yeah! Run away loser!"

_What. A. Bitch. _Tsukune bitterly thought about the woman.

xxXxx

Tsukune couldn't quite figure out how he ended up in _her _room, but he was. He was sitting in a chair slumped over, while she was sitting in her bed, celebrating her so called 'victory'. He noticed she had a black tail swinging back and forth behind her.

"I have to go apologize."

The woman stopped cold. Tsukune stood up.

_All this time, and I never even learned her name. There's a lesson in here…somewhere._

"Where are you going?"

"Like I said, I'm going to apologize to Moka."

"No wait!"

She jumped on him. Her aim was apparently dead on, because Tsukune could only see, smell, and feel the fabric covering his face. Her death grip on his head made sure he couldn't fix this dilemma, no matter how badly he wanted to.

"Aww. You're down in the dumps right now. But don't worry. Your bosom buddy will make it all better." For just a moment Tsukune stopped everything he was doing. The bluenette mistook his sudden calmness for acceptance.

_Bosom buddy. Did she really just say…bosom buddy. I should slap her on principle, regardless of the fact she was just mind controlling me earlier._

Tsukune started flailing about and tried to pry away the woman again, when he remembered he couldn't breathe. He tried patting her arm and pointing to his face, but she took it as 'squeeze harder, this feels really good'. This only made him grunt, flail, and try to force her away even harder.

xxXxx

"Is she right? Do I really just use Tsukune for blood? I really don't know what to think anymore!" She covered her pulled her legs to her chest and buried her face.

'**You don't have time to mope**.' Moka's head shot up at the voice. '**Tsukune fell prey to the Succubus's magic. It's called 'love charm'. And now she's got him eating out the palm of her hand.**'

"*Gasp* you're talking…through my rosary!" Moka summarized. Her inner self didn't even bother to acknowledge the question.

'**A man that gets kissed by a succubus becomes her prisoner forever, and she'll proceed to suck the life out of him until he dies.**'

"*gasp* Oh no!"

'**You must hurry**.'

"But hurry where? You must help me! Tell me!" Inner Moka was tempted to yell 'how the hell could I know?', but that would only slow them both down in saving Tsukune's life, and more importantly, ruin her cool.

"Tsukune no!" Moka stood up and took off running.

xxXxx

Tsukune took in a deep breath of fresh hair. He didn't really know how to react when he was pushed down to her bed with her on her hands and knees above him.

"Um miss…?"

"My name's Kurumu."

"Yeah Kurumu. Could you please not…"

"You'll be my first Tsukune."

_Could've fooled me. Can I go home now? I have stuff to do, like stare at my homework for a full five minutes before tossing it somewhere and doing something else._

"You'll be the first guy I use this magic on."

Tsukune quickly turned his head and eyes away, but somehow his face and eyes were magnetically turned to meet hers.

"Don't run away." She stated, before leaning in for a kiss.

_I don't know what kind of monster she is, but I'm pretty sure if looking in her eyes makes me a slave, then kissing her will do something a lot worse_.

He quickly managed to overcome his mental bonds and reached up to hug her. He moved his face to avoid hers entirely.

"I told you this was first time! You have to be more gentle."

_Um, I wasn't thinking about doing that. At. All._

"Stop." Tsukune stated.

Kurumu's eyes widened in surprise.

"I can't go through with this." Kurumu's face hardened.

"Impossible." She grabbed his shoulders and tried to force him to look in her eyes again but Tsukune held firm.

"You made me say terrible things to Moka, and she was my first friend here. I can't leave things like this."

"You want her more than me." It was a statement not a question. "DON'T YOU! EVEN THOUGH I THREW MYSELF AT YOU! Some of the stuff was even embarrassing for me!" She shoved him down to the bed.

"Well maybe if you're first reaction wasn't to trick me and brainwash me, I would've-"

"NOW I'M REALLY MAD!" Long purple, bat wings sprouted out her back. Her nails sharpened and extended.

"How are _you_ gonna get mad about me not liking you! You tried to RAPE ME!"

She screamed and charged at him.

She stopped cold when a brown skinned hand clamped around her wrist. She slowly looked up, and was suitably cowed when the augment she saw from earlier was leering down at her with judging eyes.

"What do you think you're doing." He stated with ample base in his voice. Kurumu shrinked under the man's gaze.

Moka busted into the room right then. Due to her angle, she only saw a scared looking Tsukune and Kurumu with her wings out. If she looked a little harder, she would've noticed that her wings partially obscured a rather massive man from view.

"GET AWAY!" Moka ran up and shoved Kurumu from behind, launching her clean out the window. Eli stood off to the side with a raised eye brow.

Moka flinched backward when she saw the augment standing close to where Kurumu had been. Tsukune just managed get off the bed when Moka leapt backward to shield him with her body.

"What are you doing!" She demanded of him. Eli was surprised this little girl had the nerve to talk to him in such a manner. Most monsters he encountered shied away if he gave them more than a passing glance.

"He was helping me!" Tsukune yelled, irritated that both of his rescuers chose _now _to fight.

Kurumu flew by the window and yanked Tsukune out by the neck with her very own tail. With Moka in the way, Eli wasn't able to intercept it in time. Moka however leapt onto Tsukune before he was carried out.

…

Eli suddenly found himself in a little teenage girl's room by himself. He leapt out the window in hot pursuit, before his reputation could be soiled.

xxXxx

Kurumu's face reddened at the strain being put on her tail by holding the two. She immediately released Tsukune's neck, which by extension dropped him along with Moka at roughly 15 feet in midair.

Both fell into muscular, brown skinned arms. Tsukune was still reeling from just being dragged out a window by the throat, so he couldn't make heads or tails of anything. Moka nearly pushed the augment away, but realized he had caught both of them. Eli released both teenagers so they landed on their feet. When their feet didn't immediately touch the ground, they were reminded just how TALL he was.

"YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" She yelled at the large augment who was just standing there.

"I came to protect students from the dangers of another student. Now as the school resource officer, I'm given full authority to bring you to heel. By force if necessary."

"How can you do that? You're on the ground!"

"Ignoring the fact I can reliably hit you with a throwing knife at this range," Her eyes bulged out her sockets. "You have to land eventually. Besides, murderous or not, you're still just a child fighting veteran augment."

Kurumu decided to test for herself if this human could really do what everyone claimed. She made a banshee cry as she charged.

Eli sighed, really not wanting to lay his hands on a child, a little girl at that. However, he supposed he could restrain her fairly easily.

As she swooped down, Eli's hand shot up. Her wrists were caught by massive hands that completely engulfed her frail wrist. Her momentum kept going and slammed into his chest. The close quarters specialist barely made a noise to the impact, while Kurumu's breasts ached from the impact. The human's chest felt more like a brick wall!

"Now will you cooperate? I have no desire to hurt you." Kurumu's eyes widened at how quickly this human had moved. Deciding she could succeed where Vampires, Arrancar, and Hollows failed, her toe nails shot out into blades, just like her fingers. Eli saw this and he kneed her in her thigh when she tried to kick, soundly leg-checking her.

Deciding he had enough of her struggling, Eli Judo flipped Kurumu on her back. The blue-haired woman groaned in pain. Eli didn't flip her very hard. Maybe enough to lightly wind someone who was very heavy. Plus her wings eased her landing. She couldn't possibly have been seriously hurt, but the knowledge that he _could _hurt her did wonders for her outlook on life. She smartly reverted back to her human form, suitably chastised. Eli gave her a stern look that she wilted under.

Meanwhile, Moka's rosary glowed bright red.

'**Have Tsukune remove the rosary immediately!**' Moka flinched at her other halves' harsh bark.

"Why? Kurumu's already been defeated." Moka asked.

'**Do it.**'

"Um…Tsukune? Could you remove my rosary? My vampire half wants to say something." Tsukune gave her an 'are you serious' look. He supposed it made sense that her inner half could talk to the outer half, but still.

"Why?"

"She wants to talk." Tsukune sighed to himself.

"Right. Talk." Against his better judgment, he grasped the rosary.

And then a larger hand clamped down on both his hand and the rosary. Tsukune's and Moka's eyes bugged out of their head at the augments proximity.

"I know all about this Rosary of yours, Moka. We're all tired and running high on tensions. When I let go Tsukune, I want you to carefully release the rosary. The last thing I need right now is to have to involuntarily restrain _another_ little girl running on high emotions." Eli noticed Kurumu was slinking away in his peripheral vision. He made no attempt to stop her.

Tsukune nodded dumbly at the man's statement and released the rosary. Said object glowed a furious red and started lightly raddling.

"Calm yourself vampire. I work here as a resource officer, and you're a student that attends here, so to speak. We'll have plenty of moments to 'spar' in the future. I simply don't feel like it today."

The rosary subtly calmed down at the augment's explanation. Moka was rather relieved, yet oddly disappointed. She blamed the later on her inner self's emotions showing through.

"Um sir, if you don't mind me asking. Who are you?" Tsukune asked. The augment smiled; happy he made a good impression.

_If he's really the only human in this school, I need to hang out around him! Well he's not entirely human anymore, but close enough._

"Eli. PWCD spec ops. Close quarters specialist."

Tsukune nodded and thanked the man for the help. Eli turned and began walking back to the school. He smirked as he saw Kurumu's head dart back in the school at his approach.

xxXxx

"The rosary spoke to you." Tsukune blankly repeated, as if hearing how it sounded from someone else's mouth would make her realize how dumb it sounded.

"I know. It's weird. Maybe the seal is getting weaker or something." She stated.

"Really…." He thought back to yesterday's fight. "She may not think it, but you're both my friends since I can't logically like only half a person. Anyway, for future reference, if you wanna suck my blood, that's okay."

Moka looked amazed. As if a child had just been asked if it wanted to own their own candy store.

"But you have to ask me first! You can't just run up and bite me while I'm asleep or something!" He made extra sure to clarify. Being nice to friends, without setting ground rules was practically asking to be taken advantage of.

Moka just gazed at Tsukune with a loving look. Tsukune nervously looked back at Moka, occasionally darting over to make sure someone wasn't looking at this weird 'moment' they were having.

Suddenly that weird bat from earlier popped up

"How'd we get from bouncing boobs to this crap? Wee!" The creature flew away just as fast as it came.

_Yeah weird, talking, perverted, stuffed animal-looking, bat! How did I get in all this crap?_

"Morning!"

"GAH!" Tsukune flinched as Kurumu suddenly appeared behind them.

_Was she even _there_ a second ago?_

"Look Tsukune, I wanted to apologize. Succubi are a small and dying race. I'm on an important mission to pick my chosen one out of a large pool of bewitched men to mate with. If I don't, then my race will surely die off."

Tsukune and Moka just stared at her.

_That kind of came outta nowhere._ Tsukune thought.

Moka's rosary flared, showing that inner Moka acknowledged the statement. Whether or not she was over it…Tsukune was pretty sure she wasn't, if he was completely honest with himself.

"Well, I forgive you."

"GOOD! I brought cookies for you!"

"What- for me? Why me?" _Why not the girl who you embarrassed in front of half the male portion of the freshmen class?_

"Well you know what I just said about destined ones?" She started slowly.

"Yeeeah?" Tsukune replied.

"Well I've decided that my destined one…is you!"

"Well that's nic-Wait, WHAT?"

"You were able to resist my charm! Only my destined one can do that!" Kurumu ran over pressed her cleavage into his chest.

Sufficiently irritated, Moka snatched Tsukune back. Kurumu yanked Tsukun back by the arm. Moka pulled on his other arm.

Tsukune couldn't quite figure out how he became the rope used in a tug-of-war fight, but he decided to just go with it, and hope he makes it to the next day.

"Stop it! Tsukune's mine and mine alone!" Moka reached up and cupped Tsukune's chin with her hand, before she bit his neck.

"GAAAAH!"

Eli watched the scene from the front of the school, and laughed.

Ah, the joys of being young.

xxXxx

Author's note: Next chapter, we hop right back into the action. This was just a humorous intervention. It also now holds the record for longest chapter, at 6166 words.

Peace!


	17. War of the Worlds

Author's note: Voting is in favor of option B. I promise not to make it TOO grim-dark and loaded with racism, but it will play a prominent part of this story.

xxXxx

**War of the Worlds**

2008 December 24th Huecco Mundo

No matter how predictable, Aizen deeply enjoyed when all the elements of a plan came together.

Below Aizen was his massive force of over 1,000 arrancar. They had been divided up into 10 separate armies of 100, each led by an Espada commander. Said Espada's fraccion, if they had any, were the acting lieutenants of that army as well. In addition to his arrancar, were hundreds of Gillians, as well as several thousand hollows.

Aizen had the utmost faith that his army could conquer either Soul Society or The real world.

But not both.

Aizen hadn't attacked yet because he didn't know whether or not the humans of the PWCD and Soul Society were allied or not. If he attacked the real world, then he'd be fighting against the PWCD's super humans and shinigami that would assuredly move to help defend the real world. In which case, his forces would inflict massive casualties to both, but they would also be completely destroyed in the process. Then he'd be defenseless in the face of the battered but combat ready soldiers of both. If he attacked Seireitei in force and the PWCD humans appeared in force as well to defend soul society, he'd be met with the exact same results as before. Complete annihilation of his forces, followed by him being hunted down.

Aizen's spy in the Soul Society didn't know whether or not the 13 protection squads were allied with the PWCD, leaving Aizen completely in the dark. As such, he came up with a different solution. He had forged an alliance with humanity's greatest enemy, the Youkai.

He didn't expect those weaklings to actually do anything. The humans had crushed the youkai at the peak of their power thousands of years ago. Then the humans crushed them again, when they tried to challenge their rule of the real world a second time. It wasn't a large leap in logic to figure out the that should the youkai engage in a third war, they'd likely by wiped from existence, by their human adversaries.

But that was precisely their purpose.

They were distractions. They were meat shields to distract the PWCD's forces while Aizen made his move against the shinigami. By the time humanity had dealt with the youkai, he'd have already taken Seireitei by force. Any attempt made by the humans to strike back would be met by counter attack. The super soldiers were definitely fighters to be reckoned with, but not so much that they could defeat his army in pitched combat.

They'd likely be prepared for a fight after just dispatching the youkai terrorists, but that mattered little.

Aizen _was_ worried about the human's infamous super weapon though. His spy had reported that the reason the PWCD and Gotei 13 weren't at war with each other over conflicting interest was because the humans had threatened to bomb them with a genocide weapon. Whether or not that would work on his army, he was uncertain. If it did however, he'd only have to attack sooner, to avoid taking the full brunt of it.

Aizen selected his top 8 Espada, along with their armies, and a large contingent of hollows to capture Seireitei from the shinigami. He had Yammy, Aaroniero, and 200 Arrancar remain, to guard Las Noches from possible invasion.

Aizen had a phone call to make.

"Hello, Gyokuro? We've begun moving. We need you to start your attack immediately."

"Gladly Aizen. I'll be waiting for you forces to show up to support ours."

Aizen easily bit back a chuckle. He couldn't let her get suspicious of his motives.

xxXxx

2008 December 24th, Japan

Across the cities of japan, people were merry and happy. Christmas was the very next day. Japanese adaptations of the world famous holiday lighted the land of rising sun with cheer.

Sadly, the happiness wouldn't last. The earth seemingly shook as magic washed over the country of japan.

PWCD bases erupted into action as traces of monster activity poured out of Japan. The vegetation surrounding the numerous Japanese cities began to writhe and move of their own accord. Plants reshaped into bipedal creatures with glowing red eyes and gaping maws. Vines animated into vicious tentacles. Witches across the country of Japan either laughed in glee of the oncoming invasion, or paled in horror as they realized what the rest of their species was actually doing.

Fairy Tale had requisitioned the aid of numerous powerful wizards, witches, and warlocks. Even though many monsters saw them as simple humans with youkai power, it didn't change the simple fact that they hated humans as much as monsters did, if not more. That was good enough for her. When Gyokuro had explained her plan for cleansing japan of humanity, most of them happily accepted. A few others had to be bought, bullied, or intimidated into joining. Those small few that outright refused were killed for fear of speaking of what they heard.

As plants animated and began moving, humans started noticing that something was off. There was an unnerving silence in Japan, just before the hungry roars of millions of plants echoed across the sky.

The creatures started marauding toward the nearest cities.

Civilians watched in rapt shock as plants started entering cities, and….began slaughtering and eating every human they came in contact with. Civilians turned and ran screaming away from the monsters.

The situation worsened as humans in the middle of crowds spontaneously morphed into nightmarish monstrosities. Those monsters would then turn on the surrounding civilians and attack with reckless abandon.

This scene repeated across most cities of Japan. It was absolute chaos, as plants and monsters ran rampant in the streets, murdering and pillaging as they saw fit.

xxXxx

United States

Americans watched in shock as creatures from nightmares and horror stories ruthlessly killed innocent civilians. Some people were killed by being sliced, stabbed, or bludgeoned. Others were killed by gouts of flame, as fire based monsters killed humans in droves. Many people, however, were simply caught and eaten alive then and there.

Men, women, and children, gagged or cried at the brutality of it all.

Was this some sick joke? Was this really happening? As news stations aired and reported the chaos going on across Japan, it steadily dawned on them what was happening was reality. People were being murdered by non-humans. Unprepared and unable to defend themselves the citizens of Japan were slaughtered like a herd of lambs surrounded by packs of hungry wolves.

xxXxx

Russia

The people screamed and pointed at the images that were being shown to them. Men, Women, and Children alike were all carelessly murdered. A man gagged as he saw a giant, muscular, monster with spikes eating a teenager it had just caught.

xxXxx

Great Britian

Thousands of people averted their eyes at the destruction being caused. Blood ran slick in the streets of Japan as carnivorous plants and murderous monsters rioted in plain sight of the world. Calling it destruction didn't give what the world was seeing enough justice.

xxXxx

Switzerland, Israel, France, Portugal, Norway, Spain

Everywhere, things were the same. Death and destruction ran rampant in the streets of the land of the rising sun.

Many people refused to believe what they were seeing but the majority looked horrified as they acknowledged these images as the truth. Those that saw this senseless destruction could only wonder one thing.

Who would stop these evil creatures?

xxXxx

PWCD headquarters

The president sat, stone faced as he watched the scene unfolding before him. When he couldn't stomach it anymore, he cut the video feed.

The man sighed.

Where had he gone wrong?

The Paranormal Warfare Contingency and Defense organization had dedicated itself to defending humanity for 100 proud years. What he saw in those images, he wasn't as angry at the monsters, as he was disappointed in himself. They had attempted attacks such as this many times, years ago. Time and again, the proud men and women of humanity's finest had stopped them. This wasn't a declaration of war in his eyes.

This was his failure announced for the world to see.

The president opened video communication to every one of the various commanders across the world, leading and organizing the troops of the PWCD.

He ordered _everyone_ be mobilized.

"Sir. What do you mean by 'everyone'?"

"_Every_ single soldier we have is to be deployed. _Every_ suit we've ever created I want activated and being worn by someone who can use it. _Every_ gun we have, I want loaded and in someone's hands. Recall _ALL_ personnel we have from any non-combative missions. I want everything that makes a bang over there. _Now._"

"Sir…what about our auxiliaries?" The president looked at the man who spoke. A Japanese man with fire in his eyes. The man continued. "We have several dozen youkai working for us at desk jobs. As well, we have an arrancar, and a few hollows here with us. What do you want us to do with them?"

"Place them in captivity for now. Explain that they're being restrained for their own good. If they're spotted at this time, they'll likely be killed by our own men. If they try to escape, kill them."

"Yes sir."

"The rest of you."

Everyone in attendance straightened up. The PWCD president was most certainly not amused today.

"Well over 100 million people live in Japan. Right now, at least two-thirds of that number has just been killed right now. Tell your men that rescuing civilians is a secondary objective."

"But sir, if helping the people being attacked is the secondary objective, what's the primary." The President gave the man a glare that could melt Antarctica.

"Kill each and every monster you find. No prisoners, no dissenters, and no test subjects. Destroy every _single_ one of those bastards and find out the name of the one who orchestrated this attack. I want the perpetrator of this attack brought in alive, but I couldn't care less for their physical condition."

"Yes sir." They all echoed.

The president waited for a few seconds after everyone signed out.

Then he let loose a primal growl before smashing his hands into the desk. He stood in banged his arm against the walls, venting all his anger and frustration. He punched the same spot on the wall again and again until he was certain that his knuckles were broken. With a final, pain filled punch against the wall; he fell back into his seat.

He stared at the ground, and remained that way for a while.

There were easily 5000 augments moving to Japan right now, if they weren't already there. He guessed there would be little more than 9 or 10,000 monsters total if he was being generous, no counting the cannon fodder plants running around. When the armed forces of Japan, the neighboring country of china, and undoubtedly the rest of world's armed forces that would come, were also factored, he knew it would be a slaughter.

Sadly, the knowledge that these enemies were most certainly doomed did little to improve his mood.

He had failed at protecting the lives of over 75 million civilians, each with their own families and loved ones.

It was _his _duty to stop this from happening and he failed. All he could do now was console himself in that he would make the youkai species pay for every drop of blood with their own.

They had pushed humanity too far this time. Any concept of 'mercy' had died with those civilians.

xxXxx

Karakura

A group of spiritually aware teenagers ran through the city with a grim fortitude.

Ichigo ran through the streets in his shinigami form, cutting down monsters and plants alike with errant swings. Next to him, Chad and Uryuu felled monsters with punches and spirit arrows. Orihime followed, healing any people she could find that were injured.

No one knew what to make of these strange creatures, but they were killing off innocent humans. That was more than enough information.

They weren't the only ones that had taken to fighting off these monsters. Yoruichi, Kisuke, and the vizards also flew in and out the city, easily laying waste to whatever monsters they found with their superior powers and fighting ability.

The monster could see their assailants due to their youki energy, but weren't nearly strong enough to actually oppose them in combat. The fleeing humans didn't know what was happening; just that somehow their 'would be' murderers were dying somehow, and were content to not linger on it. They simply took advantage of it and fled to whatever safety they could find.

With their combined might, the monsters and monster plants that were invading Karakura were quickly being pushed back.

Throughout it all, Kisuke had a grim look on his face. Monsters were running rampant in public, meaning not only would the PWCD have to stop them in plain view, but they would have to answer to the rest of humanity.

The whines of dozens of helicopters in the distance only made Kisuke's frown deepen. At this point, it'd be considered a miracle if a genocide wasn't carried out by the end of this mess.

xxXxx

Seireitei

The once proud capital of the Gotei 13 was under siege.

It was absolute chaos as hundreds of arrancar, hollows, and shinigami crossed blades with each other. Kido and Cero's flew through the air so often that they usually hit other targets they weren't intending to hit. With such dangers of friendly fire and double teaming, the concept of honorable combat was quickly lost. Soon everything turned into a giant melee.

Any man or woman not actively on high alert from every direction was likely to be stabbed in the back or shot by a kido or cero.

There were easily over a thousand shinigami at any one time in Seireitei, meaning they outnumbered their hollow and arrancar counterparts by a small margin. In addition, all the still loyal captains were present in the battle, marauding across the battlefield and killing any enemy they came across with pathetic ease. Even the massive Gillians stomping across the battlefield were errantly sliced in half by captains and lieutenants that happened to be passing through.

But it was not to be.

Regardless of their skill level, all arrancar had hierro. With natural armor on their side, the unseated shinigami quickly began to falter. Because their swords didn't have the reiatsu behind them to slice through an arrancar's hierro, they were forced to fall back on long winded kido spells to kill arrancar, or simply ignore them in favor of only attacking hollows. Arrancar had no such limitations and quickly began to push their advantage. Despite their numerical superiority, shinigami steadily fell to the feet of the arrancar, where unseated officers weren't present. The captains, lieutenants, and third seats were pretty much the only thing keeping them in this battle. But then the worst happened.

The Espada and their fraccion joined the fray.

The captains, lieutenants, and a few thirds seats were quick to intercept the powerful arrancar, but in the process, left the rest of the shinigami to fight a losing battle with even less resources.

Captain-Commander saw the battle was a losing one, so he picked up the nearest shinigami not currently engaged in combat and sent him out to the real world to Karakura. There, he'd quickly recall all those….'special cases' to help defend their stronghold. Ichigo and his friends, the vizards, Kisuke and Yoruichi, everyone he could possibly get.

The Captain Commander shrugged off his white cloak. Following that, he removed his shirt, revealing his surprisingly muscular form to the world. His seemingly unassuming walking cane disintegrated to reveal his zanpakutou was inside it.

The elderly shinigami sighed as he considered just how much was riding on this battle. If they lost here, than no one else would be able to stand against Aizen.

Captain Commander cringed as he realized there _was_ another military force that could defeat Aizen in the 13 protection squad's absence. However, he'd have fallen in battle long before he dare accept the help of those ungrateful humans.

With a burst of fiery reiatsu, he entered the battle.

xxXxx

Japan

15 Njal carriers thundered forward, carrying a cargo of 60 exo-skeleton, power armored suits. 30 assault terminatos. 15 terminators, standard load out. 15 V8 Bunker suits, 10 armed with sonic cannons, 5 armed with rail guns. They would spearhead the assault as they were the closest thing to front line soldiers the PWCD had. With their tank like armor, they would lead the charge. As well, since exo-skeleton suits had never been deployed against youkai before, there would be a certain element of surprise in their favor.

3 AC-130u gunships were moving into engagement range in different parts of Japan.

Dozens of attack helicopters, bombers, and fighter jets of the PWCD personal air force would be swarming the skies of Japan in scant minutes.

48 shock troopers being headed Yuri Boyka rode in the bellies of 5 infantry carriers, where they would halo jump out, and launch surprise attacks on large concentrations of youkai.

19 commandos were separated into 4 squads of 4 and 1 squad of 3. The 5 squads were each dispatched to different cities, creeping through the scarred terrain, cloaked and undetected. They were given the order to selectively engage and destroy all S-class monsters they spotted. Then they were to cloak and hunt for more S-class monsters. If they couldn't find any more S-class after 30 minutes of their previous confirmed kill, they were to ambush any passing youkai. Temporarily accompanying the 3 man squad was Veltro Sojay, the PWCD's most accomplished assassin.

Behind all those were approximately 4,871 power armored, augment super soldiers, pulled from all across the world to participate in this attack. Javier, Grave team, James Wesker, and countless other legends of the PWCD military were present. The world's most experienced, most skilled, and most lethal soldiers were all crammed inside carriers, transport helicopters, amphibious vehicles, and inverted reiatsu portals, and any other methods that would get them to Japan as speedily as possible.

The full military might of the PWCD was being amassed to a single country of the world for a single intent.

Destroy every monster in sight.

xxXxx

Nagoya

The Japanese military forces had created a kill zone in front of the city's bridge. Civilians were being hastily sent across the bridge, to safety, as the Japanese armed forces pushed back the assaulting monsters and monster plants.

3 Japanese type 90 tanks sent Youkai and carnivorous plants alike reeling with the reports of their main guns. Any large numbers of youkai attempting to attack were reduced to a shower of limbs and shrapnel. Those few monsters that managed to get through the guns of the 3 type 90 tanks were quickly mowed down by strategically placed machine gun turrets, 3 of which were on top of the tanks themselves.

Sadly it had been over 30 minutes since the last civilian had passed through, leadin the men to assume that there weren't any more civilians left to save. As well, the soldiers were starting to run low on ammunition. Their morale was at an all-time low. They were still coping with the existence of monsters, and now many of them had to worry for the status of their family and loved ones living in this country,

It was then that a strange woman walked forward toward the position of the humans.

They immediately lowered their weapons when they saw it was a just a tanned skinned teenage girl. She was crying heavily as she laid eyes on the humans.

They were calling her over to safety, telling her it was too dangerous and she had to get out of here. She only cried harder as she saw them trying to help her.

She really didn't want to hurt these humans. She didn't. They were only trying to protect the people that fairy tale was killing. They were entirely justified. But orders were orders, and she had no other option but to follow them.

It was with regret that Kahlua charged forward. The humans were shocked as the seemingly innocent girl punched through the front of the center most type-90 battle tank and lifted it above her head. The Japanese soldiers cried out in shock as the multi-ton tank was brought down and smashed against another tank, likely killing the crew of both vehicles. She swung the tank she had grabbed to the opposite side, into the other tank. When none of the three tanks made any sign they were being piloted anymore, she hefted the war-machine over her head and stared at the shocked and awed humans.

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me."

She prepared to throw the tank at the soldiers.

The sound of dozens of helicopter rotors interrupted her. She looked to the sky just in time to see a black attack helicopter strafe a block full of monsters down the street. Explosions rocked the earth as several more attack helicopters and bombers flew above her head.

Silently happy that she had an excuse not to attack these humans anymore, she put the tank down in front of her so the humans didn't get their bearings and start shooting at her. Kahlua sprinted down the street and quickly dunked into a building when a few bullet rounds ricocheted from just above her head.

Kahlua slid down to her knees and cried for the sake of those she had just killed. She cried over those who were being killed. Then she cried for those who inevitably would be killed before this was over.

She never would've noticed the heat blur that slowly moved up next to her.

xxXxx

Well it's finally happened.

World War 3 has just been declared and not even the dead are safe. I have to admit, it's going to be interesting writing this out. If someone dies, they may reincarnate and reappear at Soul Society. If they were human military, the sight of another human soldier may jog their memory and have them rejoin the human side.

Ignoring all the possibilities that could happen, Aizen has just launched an attack on Soul Society, and the shinigami are losing. Aizen instigated an invasion of humanity by monsters, mostly to distract the PWCD from his invasion of Soul Society (which worked far too well). Now everyone is in a state of war.

Sucks to be in Japan right now.


	18. Reckoning

Author's Note: I'd like to thank you all for the support you've given this story! Most people wouldn't bother trying to finish a story if they were completely sure that practically no one cared. I openly admit that I'm one of those people. With the way this story has gone though, I feel like making a couple spin-offs, or more accurately 'extensions' of this story long after I complete this one. Claymore and Elfen Lied are next up for the chopping block.

Anyone that wishes to introduce an anime where humans are A) harrowed by a different species that for whatever reason, they can't fight and B) Humans rely on 'friendly monsters' or hybrids for their defense from said species/monsters, feel free. Also leave a full explanation what the story is about, so I don't end up over or under powering anyone. Inuyasha, I considered, but digressed when I remembered I knew absolutely nothing about the story except that there were demons and there were jewel shards that turned demons into super demons. There were also some demon hunters here and there, but they seemed to get waxed whenever something more powerful than the average demon showed up.

I also noticed that the PWCD hasn't killed any monsters in the last 3 chapters. Circumstances considered, I think there will be enough violence to make up for all 3 chapters.

xxXxx

**Reckoning**

2008 December 24th, Nagoya, Japan

Gyokuro was sweating as she repeatedly looked to the sky.

No matter how many times she checked, no matter how many times she begged, no hollow army came. She hastily called Aizen to ask what the hell was going on.

An explosion went off just a few meters to her right. She lightly staggered before righting herself, letting her vampire powers heal the damage the explosive's shrapnel had caused her. She was beginning to regret her decision to watch her supposed 'victory' in person.

"Hello?"

"AIZEN! Where the hell are you? We've launched our attack hours ago and your army is nowhere in sight!"

"My dear Gyokuro have you not realized? You attacked and killed millions of humans yet not a single shinigami is in sight, even for just collecting the souls of the fallen. Don't you want to know why?" Aizen asked.

"You attacked them, didn't you?" Gyokuro stated.

"Yes. They are only moments from falling as we speak. But I have to thank you for my inevitable victory. There was a very realistic chance that the PWCD would've interfered in my attack, and along with the shinigami, would've defeated my forces. But thanks to you, the PWCD will be too preoccupied fighting you to notice that my invasion has already begun."

"So you're sacrificing us for your convenience." It was a statement, not a question. Gyokuro's face darkened as she realized what was happening.

"Not completely. When I'm done with the shinigami, my entire force will move to the human world. Believe me, they'll be more than enough to take over the real world. Simply survive until then."

*click*

_CRUNCH!_

Gyokuro shivered in fury as she crushed the phone in her hands. She bared her teeth and growled in rage as she considered 100 different ways to torture the traitorous bastard that was Aizen. He had told her to simply _survive_ until he could get to her, after promising his army would arrive right after fairy tale made their attack.

Now they were left alone in the face of the PWCD as well as the fury of 7 _billion _humans_._

The vampiress removed her admiral's jacket and sat it on the ground. She carefully stretched and steeled herself. She was getting ready to fight, and she assured herself that she wouldn't be defeated as easily as before.

She'd kill as many humans as she possibly could before dying or being forced to retreat. That, she promised herself.

xxXxx

In the skies above the city, 5 Njal carriers flew in formation.

Nagoya was estimated to have the highest concentration of monsters in all of Japan. It was where the most S-class monsters had been spotted, and it was believed that many high value targets may be located there. As such, the bulk of the exo-skeleton, power armored suits were being deployed there. Once they broke the chain of command, the monsters would truly devolve into aimless beasts looking for anyway they could survive. When that happened, they'd slaughter the monsters like lambs. This was but one of the many attacks being launched by the PWCD, but it would be one of the most important.

Monsters and some of the scattered surviving civilians alike watched as 20 black dots dropped like bricks from the flight of aircraft that had passed. Many monsters, thinking they were seeing more human bombs, ran for cover.

16 assault terminators and 4 sonic cannon armed Bunker suits hit the ground. Each left a deep crater where they struck.

The Youkai watched these strange things land with trepidation. Was this the army that Gyokuro had promised would help them? Monsters steadily came out of hiding or cover when they saw what had landed. They understandably blanched when they saw 'P.W.C.D.' in white on both shoulder pads of these large power armored suits. Slowly, the armored humans stood up. At 10 feet of height, clad in black tank armor, and wielding hammers that throbbed with blue energy and sparked with electricity, they were a sight to behold. Glaring eye lenses, and helmet cameras stared back at the monsters.

"**Youkai concentration spotted. Clear a landing zone.**" One of the assault terminators droned.

_POP!_

The massive armored suits spontaneously appeared in the midst of hundreds of monsters. Hammers swung down. Youkai were either sent flying by the shockwave, or pulped if they took a direct hit. Monsters screamed as they were pulverized and electrocuted. Orcs had their bones powdered on contact. Goblins were ruthlessly stomped into the ground by vengeful super humans. Flying monsters were blasted out the sky by the sonic weapons of Bunker suits. The assault terminators had started hammering their way through the mass of monsters, and intended to carve their way out the other side.

A bunker suit spotted a mass of carnivorous plants trying to flank them. Sonic weapons had little effect on the plants, due to them not possessing organs or ears to begin with. At most, all the sonic weapons seemed to do was rattle the plants. The V8 suits weren't under any real threat due to their armor, but they were quick to alert their allies. A small group of terminators broke off from their 'battle' with the youkai in favor of attacking the plants.

_POP!_

Carnivorous plants bite and lashed at the armor of the terminators, but it was a feeble attempt. The bites and lashes didn't even leave a mark. The assault terminators smashed their hammers down into the mass of vegetation. Because they were plants, their bodies offered no resistance to the steel reinforced, spiritual energy powered hammers. Electricity killed any plants caught in the large shockwave. Most assault terminators took to swinging horizontally across the mass of plants, back and forth. They mowed down the enchanted plant life in a manner similar to a weed whacker with a Taser setting.

The plants relentlessly pushed, regardless of the fact they couldn't do damage. The youkai, however, fled in the face of these new super humans. The humans would have none of it however. One of the 4 bunker suits got clear of his allies, so as not to worry about friendly fire, and aimed at the backs of the fleeing monsters. He fired his sonic cannon and watched in satisfaction as the monsters began falling to the ground, screaming and howling in pain. Regardless of how many bodies were between the sonic cannon and the monsters in front, the sound waves traveled through the mass of bodies. Soon the corpses of dozens of youkai covered the ground, where a mass of retreating monsters had once been. For good measure, the other bunker suits raked the bodies with their sonic cannons a few more times to make sure they were all dead, and had not simply collapsed.

One of the assault terminators caught a troll's punch with its free hand. The troll could only watch in shock as the super human slowly bent his arm back, in a show of superior strength (even if the strength was mostly artificial). Another terminator stomped over and kicked out the troll's kneecap, causing it to fall to one knee. The assault terminator sergeant walked over to the troll, as it was forced to a knee and restrained by both arms from two other terminators.

"**Who orchestrated this attack youkai?**"

"You think I'll talk? You're just weak humans! You don't deserve control of th-AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

One of the assault terminators grabbed the troll's knuckles, and squeezed until he felt it pop. The troll cried out in pain.

"**I won't ask again youkai. If you don't speak, we'll capture another of your kind, and have them tell us anything you don't tell us.**"

"Al-alright! Alright. It was Gyokuro. She told us that with this attack, we'd claim our rightful pla- NO WAIT!"

The terminator sergeant swung his hammer down and completely pulped the entire upper body of the troll. The head and most of the chest belonging to the youkai was gone in an explosion of gore. Both terminators restraining the troll, pushed the body over with indifference. The three of them were now drenched in even more youkai blood then they had originally been. He noticed that both his squad mates stared at him funnily for not letting the troll finish. It was obvious they would kill the troll, but they had expected it tell everything that was vaguely relevant before executing it.

"**We have a name now. That's enough.**"

The terminators nodded and began fanning out, clearing out the full square block of any lingering youkai.

xxXxx

Veltro waited.

A group of 12 monsters, all of them humanoid in size and appearance, were approaching. They were walking toward an overpass, that casted a pitch black shadow directly under it. In that shadow were 3 commandos and Veltro himself.

Veltro noticed that this squad was fidgeting slightly as they waited. They were willing to wait for the enemy to come to them, but they wished to just run out and slaughter them now. Not that Veltro could blame them. The amount of dead bodies lying on the ground was infuriating to say the least. There'd be revenge, but being brash about it wouldn't get them anywhere.

The youkai got closer and closer to the ambush point.

_Wait for it….. Wait for it….._

The first few youkai passed through the shadow, idly having a conversation. None of them seemed to notice they were being watched by four sets of human eyes.

The commando squad leader of Beta team looked at him, silently asking for permission to attack. Veltro held his hand up and waited for the youkai that was farthest behind to enter the shadow.

"Engage."

The 12 youkai were taken by surprise when the shadows leapt at them.

Veltro shoved his left wrist blade into a lizard youkai's heart. He spun on his heel and right hooked another monster in the throat. While that one was stunned, he turned to another youkai and slammed his left wrist blade through its jaw and out it's cranium. Before the previous youkai could fully realize it had been punched, Veltro moved up behind it and placed his hands on the back its head and its jaw. With a single, brutal twist, the neck snapped.

Veltro looked up to see that the commandos had been a lot less…clean in their kills.

Commando armor made an augment strong enough to somewhat compete with an arrancar or shinigami in strength. It didn't allow you to physically overpower most arrancar or shinigami in a full-on test of strength, but that mattered little, since that was never the PWCD's fighting style to begin with.

Against youkai that were only slightly stronger than the average human, it was a tremendously effective advantage. Most of the youkai had been killed with simple punches and kicks. He managed to catch the leader of Beta team lift a youkai by its throat, and snap its neck with a squeeze and a flick of the wrist.

Veltro nodded to the lead commando, who nodded in return. The 4 augments cloaked and creeped through the city, sternly ignoring the numerous, defiled dead bodies in sight.

In truth, Veltro was disappointed. The youkai population had been scarce around this city, since the creatures took to hiding in doors to avoid being bombarded. These monsters were hiding, and the main force hadn't even deployed yet. Right now, exo-skeleton suits were clearing out landing zones for aircraft that would transport civilians to safety. Air strikes were being launched all across Japan, and not even the AC-130u gunships had begun firing yet. They were waiting for the PWCD soldiers themselves to land and direct air strikes.

Pretty soon, Japan would get very busy with human activity once again.

"What's that sound?" Beta 3 asked.

Veltro and the 3 commandos looked up. They saw approximately 48 dots shoot across the sky before breaking off into separate groups. The lead dot seemed to have a glowing blue object on its person. Veltro immediately recognized that dot as Yuri Boyka, his hammer and jet pack being his trademark. It wasn't a large leap in logic to figure out what the rest of those dots were.

"Shock troopers. They're looking for concentrations of youkai from the sky."

They watched as about 10 dots broke off from the main group and noise dived onto a specific spot 2 blocks down from them. An explosion, gunfire, and inhuman roaring, came from the same direction the shock troopers had just landed.

"Well it looks like they found one. Should we help?" Beta 4 stated.

"Shock troopers specialize in surprise attacks and tear down tactics. If they can't do enough damage the first time, they'll just retreat and re-engage. We aren't needed."

A series of explosions racked a street a few blocks away from their position, likely from a passing bomber.

The explosion itself wasn't as interesting as what it flushed out.

A group of werewolves got clear of the street and ran. They were heading straight for the commandos and Veltro, whether they knew it or not.

"Ambush positions commandos." Veltro stated. The super soldiers were more than happy reap vengeance on the youkai that helped caused this suffering on humanity.

xxXxx

Soul Society

The shinigami were faltering.

Hundreds of bodies littered the ground and only more fell. The Espada had suffered casualties in the form of Zommari and Barragan both falling in battle to the shinigami captains. The captains were also in bad shape however. Captains Ukitake and Mayuri had both been killed in retaliation, with multiple injuries on the other captains.

The normal shinigami however were being slaughtered. In comparison to the steel skinned arrancar, 3 shinigami would die in the attempt to kill one. No matter how one looked at it, it was inevitable that the shinigami were doomed to defeat at this rate.

Yamamoto realized that even if the reinforcements got here, there were simply too many enemies at this point. They'd be buried in a pile of bodies.

Seeing no other choice, and no alternatives, he made his hardest decision ever.

He ordered a retreat to the human world. While everyone made an organized, fighting retreat, Yamamoto simply stood there in the sky, gripping his zanpokutou tightly in his hand. He called out to the 4th division captain, who had just killed 3 arrancar in a single swing.

"Captain Unohana." She turned to look at him, with grim determination replacing her usually joyful and regal appearance.

"Over the years, you have proved your loyalty and dedication. You are the best replacement for the rank of captain commander. I formally promote you. Lead all the shinigami away from here." Her face broke at her (now ex) superior's statement.

"Captain Commander, what are you doing?" She called to him. He kept staring ahead, at the hollows.

"Many times, I said that Seireitei would not fall as long as I was standing. I intend to fulfill that promise."

"But…without you…" She started

"Quit your nonsense. I will devastate the arrancar's numbers here and now. Get all of our men and women clear."

It suddenly dawned on her what the Captain Commander intended on doing. He intended to destroy both himself and countless others with his bankai. The devastation would be…tremendous.

She looked at him one last time.

"It's been an honor, Captain Commander Yamamoto."

The man watched with an air of loathing as beastly hollows ran rampant over huecco mundo. He watched as a fraction of the original number of shinigami fled through portals, away from the enemies that would surly defeat them in battle. He balefully glared as 6 of the remaining Espada sonido'd before him. He pointed his sword straight forward and uttered what would likely be his last statements.

"Reduce All Creation to Ash, Ryuujin Jakka!"

xxXxx

Las Noches

Aizen was quite impressed with what he had achieved.

He had created the ultimate soldier, with Szayel's help of course.

Hollows and Arrancar were powerful but usually undisciplined. A foe could kill one easily, by outmaneuvering it and striking a killing blow where it was least expected. Because of this short coming, they were good brawlers, but not very good warriors. Tricking them and baiting them was almost too easy. He was pretty sure that his Espada contained the only well-disciplined arrancar around, and even a few of them still had a ways to go.

Human Augments were dangerous but in a very unique way. They didn't fight their opponents by outmaneuvering or overpowering them. They won through speed, brutal efficiency, and tenacity. They weren't strong enough to really hurt anyone with their own strength, however. They were unimpressive as far as power went, and as such, resorted to ambushing and taking cheap shots to win. They were comparable to glass hammers. They would hit hard initially, but shatter when dragged down into prolonged combat. They were more specialized assassins than soldiers and warriors.

Shinigami were powerful and skilled fighters. They had no general short comings, but plenty of small weaknesses. They lacked the thick skin of arrancar and impossible speed of augments. They lacked the eagerness to kill that arrancar had, and the combative ferocity human augments had. Only truly skilled shinigami could compensate for these flaws in a fight against enemies that deviated from their usual norms of fighting, like the humans and arrancar.

What he created now, however, was perfection.

Using the hogyoku, some of his own power, and countless other variables, he created a perfect mixture of all three beings.

When he captured that human a few days ago, he hadn't truly thought about this idea until Szayel put it in his head. By perfectly melding the human augment to one of the adjuchas hollows he had under his employ, exposing him to the hogyoku, and finally adding some of his own shinigami powers, he had ended up with this.

Standing in front of Aizen was a creature wearing white colored power armor, signifying its new allegiance to him. In its hand was a weapon fashioned out of his rifle and the zanpokutou it had developed. Its weapon was now a rail gun with a curved blade that went under the gun from the barrel to the stock, that curved over the trigger. Aizen was reminded of a human pizza cutter when he laid eyes on the weapon. The head was a bleached skull that was seemingly fused to the helmet it wore. The visor of the slimmed down, astronaut-like, helmet was shattered open, revealing the face of the skull and empty eye sockets.

Its vocal cords were imperfectly mixed, but that was a minor complaint, as it could project its intent with its reiatsu. All the creature could manage was ghostly sounding growls, which sounded more like harsh wind than an actual voice. It also had split personalities. Its human side and hollow side were agreed in their goals, but acknowledged they were separate entities, thus declaring itself more than one person.

Of course Aizen couldn't simply call this creature 'the perfect hybrid'. It would be too…awkward to say when ordering it to battle. He had to be more creative in naming this new species of soldier. Separate personalities. Unrelenting tenacity. Impossible speed. Immense strength. Deadly precision. Unrivaled discipline.

Aizen paused in his musings, as he realized the perfect name for this being.

"The Meta." Aizen declared.

The creature reared its head back, and roared its approval.

Aizen smirked happily as he looked at the creature. For the first time ever, he was tempted to voluntarily rush his plans. If for nothing else but to see the destruction the Meta would bring upon enemies, other than the hollows he ordered it to kill for tests.

He was particularly eager to test the Meta's performance against shinigami and augments.

xxXxx

Author's note: For those that watch the series "Red vs Blue"…yes. I did just go there.

I really liked the story, Meta Hollow, but the guy seemingly discontinued it. By no means am I stealing his idea or anything, as the Idea of the Meta turning into a hollow has actually been around for a while. I'm simply making a character cameo of the actual Meta. Half Hollow, Half Augment, and Half Shinigami.

A lot of people are about to get messed up in the near future.


	19. Purge

Author's note: Well Aizen just screwed over _everyone _over the course 1.5 chapters. The youkai potentially face genocide at the hands of some royally pissed off humans. The shinigami just got ejected off their own stronghold. The PWCD just pulled back from all across the world to focus in one area. The arrancar may have just lost their job to a 'new' species. And out of all this, Aizen is the root of the problem. Funnily enough, Aizen is nowhere close to any of the events happening. He's literally in his own world right now, watching it all from a personal theater.

Aizen is one of the biggest douchebags in fictional history, but even I have to admit that there are very few people better at it than he is (and those that are better at it then Aizen, are called gods in their universe).

Anyway, I have to go meet another violence quota for this chapter, so have it!

xxXxx

**Purge**

December 24th PWCD headquarters of Japan 

"Multiple portals open! All of them in Karakura city! Reiatsu signatures in the area are off the charts!" An operator yelled.

The operation control officer's eyes widened at the readings as he received from reiatsu radars.

"Get me a line to the President STAT!"

xxXxx

Karakura City

The PWCD commando found himself winded when a werewolf crashed into him, and tackled him with a form that would make an American football linebacker proud. Both of them landed in a heap on the ground. The wolf pushed his advantage by going for the commando's throat and trying to strangle him, while it straddled the human's waist.

Using his artificially and genetically enhanced strength, the augment quickly snatched the hands away from his neck. The commando followed with a two handed palm strike to the wolf's chest, launching the supernatural creature off of him. The werewolf fell on its back, three yards away from him. The augment quickly sat up, and snapped up his side arm in a fluent motion.

A single shot and the werewolf didn't get back up. The commando squad leader of Alpha team looked around and saw his team had committed to the open melee.

Across the streets of Karakura, this scene was repeated.

Augments and Monsters were fighting each other openly in the streets of Karakura, killing each other mercilessly.

At first it was going well in the augment's favor. After enough aerial bombardments and strafing runs, the city streets were all but abandoned by any monsters with common sense. The augments followed up by landing on top of buildings and began to try to steadily fighting their way down stairs.

It was at this point however, that they underestimated the youkai.

They went in under the assumption that close combat favored the augment's brutal close combat style over the youkai's natural monster abilities. What should've been a textbook example of a building clearing test course being applied to real life, instead turned into a brutal melee. Monsters of all shapes and sizes grappled with augments as they came around the corner. The monster would instead be stabbed or shot with said augment's side arm or knife, the moment the monster was able to force the augment's main weapon away from them. The other monsters would rush the augment while he was preoccupied with the first. The augment's squad mates and allies would rush to his defense.

A vampire that was commanding the local group of youkai kicked an augment that was grappling with a goblin. Because of his position, he couldn't dodge. Both he and the monster he was fighting were killed by the impact and shot out the window of the building. The vampire smirked at his kill, not caring that he had killed one of his own men in the process. He was literally clobbered out of his thoughts by a human with a skull carved into the front of his visor. The vampire stumbled backward from the punch but, aside from a little bruising, was otherwise undamaged. Javier snatched out his desert eagle and started shooting. The vampire stumbled backward as he was repeatedly shot at point blank range. Javier kept walking forward while still shooting. The vampire fell against a window, bleeding vampiric blood from his bullet wounds.

It was obvious that the vampire would die to blood loss alone, but Javier wasn't satisfied. With a mighty front kick, the vampire was booted out the 3rd story window. Javier smirked when he heard a _crack _sound out seconds later. Javier turned back around and saw the aimless melee going on behind him, between the augments that had tagged along with him and the monsters that hid in this building. With a crazed smirk, he rejoined the battle.

Commando team; Alpha was down the street, in a similar brawl.

A pack of youkai being led by a werewolf had sniffed out their hiding place while they were cloaked and attacked them. 20 monsters vs 4 augments may have seemed fair in statistics. When those 4 augments were considered the elite out of all the other augments, however, it was suddenly less balanced a fight than one initially thought.

Alpha 1 and his squad were armed with M8 Kondras because they intended to only kill S-class monsters while the rest were left to the rest of the PWCD's forces coming in. Against normal monsters however, it was vast overkill. The Alpha team squad leader fired his M8 Kondra point blank, at a charging lizardman. The round tore the creature in half before drilling 5 feet into the ground, past it. It was a rifle that was designed to kill steel skinned arrancar, so he supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised at the damage it did to unarmored targets.

Alpha 2 and 3 were lashing out with punches. Their strength, coupled with the built in knuckle blades, devastated anything they touched. Alpha 4 was armed with an AK-47 he had looted off a dead youkai from earlier. He strapped his Kondra to his back and started picking off targets as they came. Any monster that crossed his sights was shot with inhuman accuracy before he changed targets. A green skinned monster, whose race he didn't readily recognize, came at Alpha 4 with a raised claw. The commando shot him once in the skull at point blank, ignoring the blood that got on him and shrugging off the body that collapsed on him. Without missing a beat, Alpha 4 shot his next target, and then the next, and the next.

Down the block from the melee that the commandos were involved in, 5 standard terminators and 2 squads of augments aimed their RPSMG's at a group of surrendering youkai.

The creatures slowly walked out the building, with their hands in the air. They repeatedly called out to not shoot, after realizing they were surrounded and couldn't escape. There were 32 monsters in all, and all of them were low level youkai. None of them held a look of anger but fear.

Earlier, over 100 youkai had occupied this area with countless carnivorous plants for support. A single passing from a PWCD Apache helicopter had reduced their number to half of that. Then the humans that were currently before them had ambushed what was left and forced them into the building, littering their dead across the ground. Now, 32 of the once powerful force of youkai remained, and at the mercy of the humans.

As soon as the last monster exited from the building with its hands up, pleading for surrender, an order was given.

"**Fire.**" The lead terminator stated.

5 RPSMG's, 8 assault rifles, and 2 heavy machine guns opened up on the monsters. They were torn apart in a hail of bullets before any could even think to escape.

"**Millions of humans dead and they expect mercy? Typical youkai.**" One of the terminators stated with evident distaste.

The 2 squads of PWCD augments moved into the building, covered by terminators using several vision settings. Any youkai that didn't have at least 2 walls between them and the guns of the terminators were reduced to grease stains by the explosive rounds.

Though many tried to make this out to be a war, the PWCD operatives knew that it truly wasn't. The monsters offered more resistance than initially expected, but it changed nothing. This wasn't an ongoing conflict or a dispute over ethics and valuables. It wasn't even truly a battle. Japan wasn't being retaken from the monsters by humans.

It was being purged.

xxXxx

In the skies of Karakura, hundreds of shinigami passed through portals and into the world of the living.

They expected to leave the war torn battlefield that was once Seireitei, and come to a semi-peaceful setting where they could rest. They came hoping that, at worst; they would have to explain to the humans what they were doing here, and take a rest. From there they would plan their next move.

What they didn't expect, was to leave one battlefield and enter another.

The city of karakura was in flames as yelling, gunfire, and explosions dotted the once proud city. Dozens of aircraft vehicles flew across the city, creating more explosions, and causing more death.

Captain Unohana firmly stopped what was left of the 13 protection squads from interfering. They had just fought, and lost, a battle. The last thing they needed was to join another battle they had no part in.

She deeply frowned as she sensed out the spiritual energy on the ground. It was a mix of youki energy that only monsters possessed and the weak reishi signatures that all humans had. She nearly broke down as she realized that this was a battle between humanity and the youkai being fought.

It was as if all the three worlds were going insane.

Shinigami and Arrancar had been fighting their war for some time now. The recent addition of the humans had shaken the original perception of the war a little and caused many new factors to be taken in account. The re-ignition of the youkai human war? Where had this come from? The PWCD had made no mention of this war happening, and the gotei 13's own warriors had never reported any such conflicts brewing. This must've meant that either the humans or the youkai had literally _just_ started this conflict.

Many shinigami flinched as five jets flew over Karakura city in formation, leaving a massive chain of explosions in their wake as they passed.

Unohana's frown deepened as far as it possibly could.

_Where did it all go wrong?_

xxXxx

Kahlua fled.

She had just barely managed to evade being killed in an ambush, while she was morning the dead. Now she was being ruthlessly chased by 4 humans in advanced armor, all throughout the city of Nagoya. She poured every once of her demon energy into her legs as she quickly sprinted down the street. She hastily turned a corner and ran down a dark alley. Bullets tore up the area she had once occupied.

Commando team Zi refused to allow any monsters to escape from them.

The 4 elite super soldiers pursued the fleeing vampire teen in a high speed chase. Every corner she turned, every object she ran through and vaulted over, they would follow and parkour over themselves. They had been chasing this woman for 8 blocks and she showed no signs of fatigue. The commandos were very well capable of keeping up, but it was starting to get irritating for them.

She was also being quite smart. Whenever the commandos managed to draw a clear line of sight to her, she would turn a corner, or if there wasn't an exit available, ram straight through the wall next to her. Soon, the commandos took to just spraying her with bullets from their side arms while they ran. The intent was that a single bullet would hit her and, for even just a few seconds, slow her down. Then they would catch her and kill her.

Kahlua was starting to pant with the effort she put in her legs, but couldn't stop running. Even as bullets were landing scarily close to her, she couldn't stop moving. And then the worst thing that could happen did.

She rounded a corner and all but ran into a bipedal tank.

A PWCD assault terminator and his four squad mates were on their way to deal with a force of monsters occupying a nearby hotel. They were going hammer their way through the front of the youkai defenses and hammer their way out the back. Once they all realized they had just bumped into a vampire, the terminator sergeant informed one of the nearby Spec-ops squads that they had run into a delay.

It was at this moment, Commando team Zi rounded the corner.

Thinking on her feet, Kahlua quickly kicked the cemented ground at the commandos and again at the terminators. This didn't even irritate the humans, but all the dirt, concrete, and such had literally been kicked up into an improvised smoke screen. Using her moment of invisibility, she quietly ran into an adjacent bar that was full of dead humans, and dead youkai on top of them. Turning and seeing the humans she had evaded, scanning the area with red tinted visors, she made a quick decision.

She saw a large spider woman, lying dead with several bullet holes. No doubt the work of human augments. Making a disgusting choice, she rolled the dead body over and quietly lied down. Then she rolled the spider woman carcass back over herself to obscure her from sight. To the outside viewer, with this many bodies in one area and several stacked on each other, finding her would be impossible. She couldn't simply lay down with the dead because the humans would likely recognize her. The two groups of armored humans and heavier armored humans were conversing with each other before separating. The large ones wielding hammers continued on to their objective, likely going out to kill more youkai. The commandos realized that the most likely direction she escaped in was inside the bar.

She held her breath when she heard footsteps.

The commandos were looking over the dead of both humans and youkai alike, searching for their target. She felt her heart beating out of her chest when a metal plated boot stepped right in front of her line of vision. She dared not look up to see if the human was looking down or not. She became increasingly antsy when the human didn't move, even as his 3 comrades walked past him. The human in front of her got down on a knee, facing her and the body

she had hid under. She nearly cried out when the augment lifted the spider woman's head to inspect what had killed her. Kahlua froze when she realized the human had turned his attention from the youkai she had hid under, to her. The soldier slowly reached out to her, and Kahlua realized that this may be the end. However, she wouldn't go down fighting. She prepared her arm to strike if necessary.

"Zi 3. What are you doing?" The human squad leader asked.

"Inspecting the bodies, Zi Actual. The target might have hid among them." The human sitting above her prone form stated.

"Negative on that Zi 3. Doesn't match up with vampire behavior." Another human off to the side said.

Seemingly satisfied with his team's statements, the human stood up. He began walking off, but stopped. He turned and stared at her once more through his bowl shaped visor before turning away. She waited until she couldn't hear anyone before pushing the body of the dead spider woman off of her. The simple act of doing that had grossed her out on many different levels.

She stood up, but quickly hid again at the sound of multiple voices.

She looked outside the window and saw a group of normal human civilians being led out by a group of 3 human augments in power armor. She pressed herself against the wall as one eye looked out at the normal humans. They were scared. They all but clung to their larger protectors for comfort.

As another helicopter flew by and fired missiles at some obscure target, she realized just how much of a mistake fairy tale had made. She looked outside and realized that so far, she had only seen PWCD and local human militia groups. The youkai forces had been devastated within hours of their attack and the main force of human soldiers wasn't even hereyet! These were all quick response groups. The actual human army had yet to arrive.

She needed to escape.

This attack had been a mistake and only earned youkai the human's ire. Now humanity would destroy every monster they found here, and then they would move on to the monster world itself. She had to find Gykouro fast and get her to pull back. They had to defend their homes now, not continue fighting a battle they were badly losing.

xxXxx

Las Noches

"I'm sorry, buy you're all worthless to me now."

Aizen had uttered those 8 simple words before destruction had rained. He, Tosen, and Gin watched as their new creation was unleashed.

The Meta plunged his blade deep into Aaroniero's chest before lifting the espada off his feet and overhead. The Meta stabbed his other hand into the dying 9th espada's chest as well, before ripping him in half.

Rudobon sent waves of his clones at the Meta but the hybrid monster nimbly dodged and speed through the clones, completely ignoring them. The Meta was going straight for the head of the snake, not the body. Rudobon tried to raise his sword to block but the Meta had other ideas. By welding its zanpokutou to its M8 kondra, the Meta could fight at range or close combat at will, by simply changing what side he pointed at his enemies. The Meta snapped off three shots, each pounding Rudobon square in the chest. The rail rifle rounds tore a gaping, bleeding hole in the arrancar's chest. Before the exequias could try to disengage, the Meta charged a cero in its hand and plunged its hand deep into Rudobon's gut. With a snarl, the Meta discharged his cero directly into Rudobon's body, frying his innards. The horned arrancar, and all his clones, disintegrated.

Yammy tried to activate his ressureccion, but the Meta retained its ruthlessness from the augmented part of him. The Meta jammed the barrel of his weapon into Yammy's open mouth, and pulled the trigger. The Meta then sliced through Yammy's head with the zanpokutou mounted on his gun, for good measure. Yammy fell to the ground, with everything above his jaw gone. The upper part of his head landed a second later with a gaping hole in it.

Removing the three immediate threats, the Meta turned to see what opposition was left. 3 privarion espada, Luppi the next in line to be an espada, 200 arrancar of no particular note, and several hundred hollows.

The Meta roared and charged.

Dordoni and Gantenbainne both counter charged using sonido. Both appeared on either side of the Meta and attacked.

Retaining its ample experience in close combat, the Meta responded.

Dordoni lashed out with a side kick. The Meta countered by kneeing the 3 digit arrancar in his thigh. The Meta punched him in the solar plexus, struck the privaron espada in the jaw with the side of his weapon, and brought up a powerful reverse elbow to the face. The Meta blocked a straight kick from the afro-headed espada, using his weapon. The Meta retained both his hollow strength and his augmented strength, making sure his attacks were felt. The Meta grabbed Gantenbainne's ankle and kicked out the leg he was balancing on. As the disco arrancar fell, The Meta yanked forward and stabbed downward at the same time.

The privaron espada was run through the chest and into the ground in a single motion. The Meta released his weapon and left it lodged in the ex-espada's chest, so he could focus full attention on the other privaron espada, Dordoni.

Dordoni had managed to get his head to stop ringing just in time for the Meta to slap both its hands against Dordoni's ears. The clap busted the man's eardrums. Just as the privaron espada moved to cover his aching ears, the Meta took a firm grip of the man's throat. With a yank, the Meta ripped out Doroni's throat, splaying blood out for all to see. The Meta booted the dying man into a wall for good measure as watched as the wall caved in on him.

The Meta dunked as several curved, whining blades came at him.

Looking up, the Meta saw the third and last privaron espada in his sights. Cirucci Thunderwitch.

The Meta sonido'd over to Gantenbainne's now dead body and ripped out his Zanpokutou/M8 Kondra from the man's chest.

The last of the privaron Espada observed her target and realized that fighting it up close would only get her killed. Instead, she opted to fire her digging blades at it relentlessly. The Meta zigzagged left and right so fast, it left after images. It was with a shock she realized it was coming straight for her!

She flew high to avoid the otherworldly monstrosity, but the Meta sonido'd so that it was right behind her.

She looked over her shoulder and gasped.

_How did it….?_

The Meta fired his rail rifle square into her back.

She cried out in pain as the bullet dug a deep gash into the space between her shoulder blades. The super hybrid followed up with a quick cero to her back, blasting her into the ground. The Meta moved to ram his zanpokutou into her back, and finish her off, but he was interrupted.

A tentacle tried to grab him, but the Meta easily dodged away from it, before slicing a piece of it off.

Luppi had an angry look in his eye as he stared at the creature. The Meta flew forward, as fast as it could. The Meta had its blade pointed directly as the arrancar's gut as it charged. Luppi's eyes widened as he moved all his tentacles to defend against the attack. The Meta used his charge as a front however and sonido'd behind Luppi. The arrogant arrancar's eyes widened as he turned around.

He was stopped from doing that as the Meta stabbed its hand into his back and wrapped its fingers around Luppi's lower spine. Luppi howled in bloody murder as the Meta gave a firm yank and disconnected the spine from Luppi's pelvic bone. With a hard pull, the Meta tore out Luppi's entire spine from his rib cage and skull, spraying both himself and Luppi with disturbing amounts of blood.

The arrancar army witnessed their strongest warriors being easily murdered at the hands of this disturbing creature.

It wasn't stronger than any of its opponents. Its reiatsu reserves were relatively low. Maybe that of a fraccion at best. Despite that, it had brutally killed some of the best huecco mundo had to offer.

"Very good Meta. You've exceeded my expectations greatly."

Aizen stated, coldly ignoring the death the Meta had brought upon the arrancar. The hollows and arrancar watched in shock and heartbreak as lord Aizen watched and _encouraged _what this creature was doing to them!

"You've more than proven how dangerous you are Meta. Now I know you can easily dispatch most enemies with your speed alone. Now show me how good you are at destroying multiple weaker enemies at once." Aizen commanded.

The Meta turned and glowered down at the crowd of arrancar that were watching. The Meta slammed a new clip into his weapon and stared at the creatures before him with empty eye sockets. Its right hand adjusted its weapon in a comfortable grip. Its left hand charged a neon blue cero.

The arrancar quickly fumbled to draw their weapons but it was too late.

The Meta was already upon them.

Cirucci watched the carnage with wide eyes. She couldn't stay here. She had to escape. Cirucci looked up to see if anyone had noticed her. Aizen, Gin, and Tousen were all watching as the Meta butchered the arrancar and hollows with sickening brutality. Quietly, she re-sealed her resurrected state and hid behind some debris. When she was certain she was clear, she opened a garganta and hastily entered it. She shut it immediately before anyone, or more accurately, any_thing_ could follow her through.

xxXxx

Author's note: Violence. If it doesn't solve all of your problems then you're not using enough of it.


	20. Battle Lines

Author's note:… Nope, I got nothing.

Oh wait! Yeah I do!

Just know that the phrase "cluster fuck" won't even begin to describe the upcoming battles. Super humans fighting 'bad' spirits, fighting so called 'good' spirits, fighting 'good' spirits that betrayed the other 'good' spirits, fighting bad monsters, fighting good monsters, fighting normal but heavily armed humans, fighting hybrids of good spirits, bad spirits, and super humans.

This is going to get a lot more interesting (and harrowing) real soon.

xxXxx

**Battle Lines**

December 24th Seireitei

The force of arrancar was battered and injured but ultimately victorious. They had done what many had dreamed of, and succeeded with astounding results. They had assaulted and taken Seireitei, the stronghold of the shinigami, and now they firmly controlled it.

It was a bitter sweet victory however.

The captain commander of the shinigami had devastated the arrancar and hollow's numbers with his bankai, at the cost of his own life. Counting the surviving Espada and their fraccion, there were in total, 300 left of the original force that numbered well over 1000 when counting the normal hollows and menos grande. Everyone was so shell-shocked by the attack that they were still reeling. As of now, the arrancar were consolidating their forces and trying to retain some sense of order before Lord Aizen arrived.

The once proud shinigami capital was now in ruins. There were only a handful of buildings still standing across the fortress of the 13 protection squads. Seireitei was now covered in craters, rubble, and most prominent, dead bodies of shinigami. The dead bodies of the arrancar and hollow army had disintegrated to dust and spirit particles. There was plenty of devastation and the arrancar couldn't be more prideful right now, to know this had all been _their_ doing. Now nothing would be able to stop them from taking over all the three worlds.

It was at this moment that Gin appeared through a portal, his smirk all too present on his face.

The traitorous shinigami, for some reason, unsettled the Espada. It was like he knew something very important had happened, something that affected everyone, and he knew all about it. The remaining Espada all sonido'd to Gin, assuming he had orders directly from Aizen to give to them. Gin looked over the remaining Espada that had fought to take control Seireitei, despite not opening his eyes. The single digit arrancar had always pondered how he was able to see without actually opening his eyes.

"I'm assuming that this is all of you that survived?" Gin asked.

Many of the arrancar nodded once or simply gave no response. Harribel, Stark, Ulquiorra, Nnoitra, Grimmjow, and Szayel were all that was left of the original 8 Espada sent to invade.

"I never expected Barragan out of all of you to bite the dust. Him being the segundo espada, as well as that whole time gimmick of his, I figured he'd be able to hold his own against multiple captains in a battle like this."

"The old bastard is dead alright? Now what did you come here for?" Grimmjow irritatedly stated. Gin put up his hands in a mock defensive gesture.

"Well since you're so enthusiastic about it!" Gin started. He leaned forward with a big grin on his face. "Aizen wants me to tell you to reorganize your forces. You're to stay here for a single day's rest and move into the city of Karakura, in pursuit of the Shinigami." Harribel chose this moment to cut in, when she noticed a flaw in that plan.

"Wouldn't we be entering human territory, and have to fight the PWCD as well?"

She had been present when the humans had infiltrated Las Noches. She had learned to respect her enemy's ability in combat long ago, and humans were no exception. If anything, underestimating them only tilted any fights further to their advantage, as was made evident when they killed most of Barragan's fraccion in mere moments. She also took into consideration the human soldiers seen during the fight against a potent army of hollows. Not knowing precisely how strong this group of "super humans" were, fighting both them and the shinigami at once could be a fatal mistake.

Gin's smile widened.

"That's the beauty of it. Aizen arranged for humanity's rivals to attack at the same time you were fighting the shinigami." Many of the arrancar raised their eyebrows. They weren't aware that humanity even _had_ rivals. Surely they would've heard of them earlier? Gin kept talking excitedly. "The PWCD is too busy smacking around the Youkai to pay much attention to us. By the time they're ready to focus on us, we'll have already defeated the remaining shinigami and taken over all 3 worlds in Aizen-sama's name."

"These _Youkai._" Ulquiorra started. "What exactly are they and what's their relation to humans?"

Gin tapped his forehead with his index finger briefly, trying to remember the full history of what exactly caused humans and monsters to dislike each other. "Well it's kind of hard to explain." Gin started. "Early in human history, there were legends of humans encountering creatures that were far superior to the average human."

"Not much of an accomplishment." Nnoitra disinterestedly stated. Gin looked at him as a silent warning to not interrupt.

"These creatures were living beings, not spiritual, but they could see spirits using youki power, or 'demon energy'. They vaguely mimicked human appearances, and many just looked like humans fused to animals. A lot of them were more or less humans with slightly non-human features, like fangs or pointed ears." Gin started getting off topic. "Anyway, these creatures usually ate, attacked, or bothered humans in one way or another. As such, individual humans took to hunting these creatures. Most humans thought of those tails as myths and legends _while_ it was happening, while the monsters called it a war for survival." Gin paused. "The majority of humans didn't realize that they were at war to begin with and thought they were just hearing folktales, because the monster population was so spare compared to humans, so it's obvious who won that conflict. So monsters evolved to be able to change into a completely human form. It was necessary for their survival because otherwise they'd be chased by human monster hunters to extinction. As time went on, the monsters started gathering and unifying more and more."

"They organized to fight humans more effectively?" Ulquiorra asked.

"No. They did it to more or less get along. As the monsters got closer to each other, they still were only as strong as they were then. Now, they simply happened to have bunched together into one place or roamed in large groups. On occasion they'd make a weak organization comprised of many different monster types. Humanity however, simply got stronger over the years because they were always fighting each other for one reason or another. They constantly built better weapons to kill each other, which worked just as well against youkai. The monsters didn't immerse themselves in human culture, but they could deduce that if humans could beat them in the age of normal swords and spears, then against humans armed with guns and better weapons, they'd lose even more horribly than before. As such, most monsters were content to just hide from view."

Grimmjow tsked in disappointment. Hiding from humans proved just how weak these monsters must be.

"There were, however, monster groups that figured humanity's first victory was just a fluke. They repeatedly tried to instigate wars between monsters and humans, but more powerful monsters always stopped them. Then later, a certain group of humans started taking out monsters, using advanced weapons and armor to fight them. Wanna guess what that organization of human was called?" Gin asked, his smile widening.

"The PWCD." Szayel concluded.

"So Aizen manipulated the Youkai to attack the PWCD's bases?" Harribel asked.

"Nope. No one really knows where any of the human bases are except Kisuke Urahara, who occasionally works with them, and the members of the human group themselves. Maybe Yoruichi Shihoin to, since she always finds a way to get into other's secrets. So we did the next best thing. We had them attack the entire country of Japan."

Many of the Espada's eyes widened.

"If what you're saying is true, than those little weaklings will be slaughtered in days." Grimmjow said. Gin shook his head and laughed.

"Actually, they're being slaughtered far sooner than that. They're on their last leg right now and its only been a few hours. That was the point though. We knew they wouldn't win, but they'd make a good distraction. Heard they killed quite a few normal humans to, in broad daylight no less. The humans as a whole are probably _really_ angry at them right now." Gin stated rather cheekily.

"Using another person as bait against your enemy is cowardly." Harribel stated, with distaste at the tactics being employed.

"What, you think the humans are playing fair? You remember that incident with the humans sneaking into Las Noches as sabotaging us?" Gin asked. Harribel frowned but didn't say anymore. There wouldn't be a point and it would only waste more time.

The Espada seemed indulged with his explanation, so he decided to bid them farewell.

"Get some rest today, because first thing in the morning, Aizen will personally arrive to lead this final attack on the remnant shinigami and humans."

The Espada nodded and returned to the areas of Seireitei they had dubbed as 'their territory' (mostly captain's quarters).

Gin returned to Las Noches, with all of 3 still living inhabitants left inside Las Noches, waiting for him.

xxXxx

Karakura city

Isshin and Ichigo were fighting viciously.

They had gathered as many civilians as they could, including their own family, inside a large hotel and fought off any monsters or carnivorous plants that tried to enter. While they were in their shinigami forms, no human without technological aid or unusually high spirit awareness could see them.

The people themselves didn't know what was happening. Many of them were just…teleported inside the hotel. Others were guided there by some invisible force. Whenever monsters came by, they seemingly turned their attention away from the defenseless humans in favor of attacking the air. Shortly afterward, they would die of spontaneous bisections and combustions. No one knew what to do but simply look outside and stare at the spectacle.

Then the monsters started acting more weird than before.

The actual monsters collapsed to the ground, screaming and clamping their hands over their ears. Other monsters simply foamed at the mouth briefly before their eyes rolled back and they fell over. The magically animated plants went unaffected by whatever was affecting the monsters.

Then genuine gunfire sounded out. Plants went down, riddled with holes and missing chunks from their bodies.

Ichigo underhand slashed a charging plant, bisecting the creature into two separate pieces. When two more plants came at him, glaring with red eyes and opening their maws, both their bodies were riddled with bullets.

The strawberry kid looked to his left and saw a sight that he didn't know whether to be weary or grateful for.

A small group of PWCD personnel approached, made up of a single bunker suit with a sonic cannon and two 5 man PWCD Spec Ops squads. Ichigo had only recently heard of this organization of super humans a few months ago. The only reason anyone bothered to tell him was because Captain Yamamoto wanted to know all that he could about real world warfare. Ichigo being a 'human', as he was quick to remind anyone that asked, he'd be the go to person for matters such as this.

That whole affair left him confused and questioning which side he was on.

The Gotei 13 certainly weren't friendly to anyone that they figured was messing with their system. He had been on the receiving end of their BS more than a few times, over the years he had been a substitute soul reaper. When he asked Urahara about how the PWCD was and functioned, the shop owner seemed to have a good (if vaguely suspicious) view of them. They were nice to those that didn't bother them or actively hurt humans. They were known to work with those that defended humans from time to time. They _sounded_ friendly, but seeing a group of 7ft tall super soldiers in black armor and toting enough weapons to start their own war understandably tainted that view.

In the corner of his eye, Ichigo saw the super soldiers begin leading the civilians out of the building he and his dad had gathered them in. A carrier landed at the end of the block, presumably to transport the people to safety.

Ichigo was broken out of his thoughts when one of the augments walked up to him and looked down at him in his eye, from behind his helmet's blue tinted optics.

"What are you doing here shinigami?" Ichigo may have had to look up at the 7ft tall soldier, but he wasn't intimidated due to his lack of reiatsu…despite being told that they didn't need it to kill a shinigami or hollow.

"First off, I'm human, not a shinigami. Second, I was protecting these people from the monsters we've been fighting for hours." The augment cocked his head.

"While I could believe that you were protecting civilians, you'll have to elaborate on the 'being human' part." Ichigo blinked, being the on confused this time around.

"What?"

"You're dressed like a shinigami, have the powers of a shinigami, and, most of all, wield a zanpokutou. Only arrancar and shinigami have those."

"I was given my powers from a soul reaper, but I retain my humanity. I'm a substitute soul reaper." Ichigo stated with conviction.

The augment looked at Ichigo long and hard, fingering his assault rifle's trigger.

Ichigo held firm under the intense gaze.

"Very well. We appreciate your help in saving the lives of these people." The augment stated before turning away.

"Wait!" The augment looked over his shoulder at him.

"Where are you taking these civilians? My sisters are in this group." The augment realized he could get in trouble for telling, but figured this boy should at least get closure in his family's safety.

"We're transporting them to nearby islands, where they'll be placed down in a system, and informed of all the family members they have on the same or similar islands."

Ichigo thanked the man before turning away. He immediately spotted Isshin talking to an augment about places any other civilians may have been holed up in. Ichigo flew forward and grabbed Isshin by his shinigami robe's collar, to which his dad understandably didn't like. The augments simply watched as one substitute shinigami flew away, dragging an older, flailing, and angry ex-shinigami with him.

xxXxx

Yuri had gathered his men and flew straight past Nagoya.

He had been informed by command that a large force of shinigami had appeared out of seemingly nowhere and were to be intercepted. Along with the 48 Shock troopers was a high flying AC-130u that was already in Karakura city. There were also plenty of aerial vehicles in the area to make sure the shinigami thought twice about their actions and intentions, whatever they may be.

Unohana stood there, calm and collected with the other captains at her side.

She simply watched as PWCD shock troopers flew closer and closer.

Toshiro narrowed his eyes when he spotted the leading shock trooper with a hammer in his hands. Toshiro recognized that particular augment from before. They had gotten into a short argument about how they were justified in killing hollows and not reincarnating them. The child-like shinigami heavily disliked the humans for their audacity, but he particularly disliked this one. Almost as much as he disliked Wesker.

When Matsumoto asked if he disliked the human because he was over 3 and a half feet taller than him, Toshiro blushed and vehemently rejected the theory.

48 Shock troopers stopped and hovered in front of the army of hundreds of shinigami.

Captain Soifon tensed as she memorized the pattern of white lines her enemy had before and tried to match it up to one of the shock troopers before her. Zaraki simply stared at Yuri with a crazed smirk, remembering all the fun they had, before those walking tin cans interrupted their fight. Ikkaku had been healed, for the most part, of all his bodily injuries that the sonic cannon of a bunker suit had caused him. Now that he was healed, he looked for the shock trooper with 3 white lines across his left eye. The augment he was looking for stared straight back at him, as if challenging the shinigami to a second round.

Unohana broke it up before yet another battle could break out by speaking.

"I apologize for the intrusion into your territory mister…" Unohana trailed off expectantly.

"My name is Yuri. Yuri Boyka. Now, why are you here and why are you in such large numbers?" The shock trooper captain asked.

The augment immediately notice her uncomfortable look, as well as that of the other shinigami. They had a certain…air about them.

Many of them seemed depressed and defeated.

"We were just invaded by the largest invading army of hollows and arrancar that Soul Society has ever seen." She hesitated to continue but as Yuri looked out at the sea of shinigami, the answer became more and more clear.

"You were defeated and driven out." It was a statement not a question.

"…Yes. We came here to try and reorganize and plan a counterattack. We didn't expect to see that the real world was experiencing its own hardships however." Unohana cordially stated.

"Please. We'll have the youkai here annihilated by days end. The real issue will be trying to prevent the rest of humanity from enacting mass genocide on their entire race."

"Those are my people you speak of _human_." Captain Komamura growled.

"Will you make up your mind? You can be a 'death god' or a living monster. Not both. Besides, these creatures killed millions of innocent civilians and you expect us to not slaughter them like lambs!" The Youkai captain's eyes widened at Yuri's scathing statement.

"They WHAT?" He growled. Yuri's second in command hovered forward, sporting _almost_ as many white scars as the shock trooper captain himself. His name was Ramon, lieutenant of the shock trooper brigade. The shock trooper calmly spoke in an Italian accent to Captain Komamura about the situation.

"They're called 'Fairy Tale'. Youkai extremist that have been harassing humanity for decades. They launched a surprise attack on the people of Japan, focusing entirely on killing civilians rather than military targets. The human death toll is already estimated to around 75 million and growing with every moment we don't wipe them out."

Captain Komamura silently seethed in rage at what those fools had done. He never had any particular issues with humans, even before becoming a shinigami. But to know that those of his very own race (as youkai now considered themselves a single unified race) had committed such an atrocity for no better reason than illogical hate? Envy even? What was there to say? He was glad that the PWCD was exterminating those mongrels like insects.

Ramon looked at Yuri and asked over their personal COM's for permission to cut a deal. Yuri was never much of a peace talker so he agreed.

"I personally don't have the authority, but we may be able to help you in retaking Seireitei. Every city in Japan has been hit and our forces are spread across the entire country trying to rescue civilians and kill off the remaining youkai that have been attacking. We already have reports of shinigami and hybrids of shinigami and hollows aiding in the protection of humans. Because of this, the city of Karakura didn't suffer half the casualties or destruction that the other cities of Japan are facing." The shinigami looked over as a low flying AC-130u fired down at the ground, destroying a square city block. Many shuttered at what the rest of Japan must look like, if this is the most intact major city in the entire island country.

"So you want us to help you with clearing out Japan?"

"No. Not all of Japan. Just clear out Karakura city of monsters and any hollows that may pass by so we can divert more forces outward. The Japanese military is too disorganized to manage any more than a few safe zones for fleeing civilians. The Chinese navy got held up by a force of mermaids and water monsters, but they'll eventually chew their way through those annoyances. The US marines are only a few hours out, with the U.S. Navy and army a day or two out. The faster we resolve this, the better."

"Why don't you want the rest of humanity to interfere? You seemed proud being able to use that advantage only a few months ago." Toshiro scathingly stated. Yuri gave him a warning glare, which the little captain entirely ignored.

"A lot of reasons." Ramon responded. A very vague answer that, if anything, only added more questions.

Toshiro narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

"So are we in agreement?" Yuri asked.

Unohana looked between her captains. Then she looked back at the hundreds of exhausted shinigami under her command. Finally she looked at the numerous airborne humans, who somewhat impatiently waited.

"Yes Yuri. We agree."

xxXxx

Cirucci stumbled out of her Gargantua, her adrenaline having worn off. Now she was forced to deal with the pain that came from her back scared and burnt back. Her vision was getting increasingly blurry as she became lightheaded. She could barely make out that there was a city in the distance before collapsing to the ground. While her world spun, a boot stepped down in front of her vision. She tried to look up, but her condition took its toll. Slowly her head flopped to the ground. She vaguely made out the voices of men before completely blacking out.

"Another arrancar? Are they being attracted here or something?"

"I don't know, but all our augments are out in the cities of Japan. We should kill her while we have the chance."

"No. Bring here in and secure her. Make a call to the field marshal to call back an augment squad. Inform him that we have captured an arrancar and we need proper security for it."

"Yes sir."

xxXxx

Author's note: I'm here to shamelessly advertise the youtube series "Dragonball: Abriged" It will be the most hilarious thing you've ever seen. I barely even watched dragonball and yet I love their videos. I believe I used a few of their jokes in Tsukune's mental dialog.

Anyway, here's another chapter for your enjoyment.

...Weird. While downloading this chapter Microsoft word counted 3,809 words in this chapter. Fanfiction counted 4,057. Now I'm here trying to figure out where the hell those extra 247 words came from. I was going to manually count how many words were in this chapter, before I said that out loud and promptly thumped myself when I realized how that actually sounded. Mysteries, mysteries...


	21. Invasion Imminent

Author's note: Well time for the next chapter in this story.

xxXxx

**Invasion Imminent **

December 25th 2008 Karakura city

The youkai had nearly been completely erased from the city.

When the PWCD augments began fighting for control, the monster population was being gradually killed off. In straight up firefights that led to charges, the augments had the luxury of standing at a distance and shooting their targets. When monsters ambushed their human counterparts with superior numbers, the augments responded with impossible reflexes and deadly efficiency. In conjunction with artillery and air strikes blowing up every single youkai that finds itself in the open, it was abundantly clear that the youkai wouldn't win.

If the battle was in favor of the PWCD before though, it was an absolute massacre now.

Hundreds of shinigami flew through and across the city that once served as a Gotei 13 stronghold in the real world. While most augments were initially wary of being attacked by the shinigami, their perception slowly changed. Youkai and the remaining carnivorous plants were sliced apart, blasted or restrained by kido, and utterly devastated at the hands of the soul reapers.

In conjunction with the vizards, ex-captains Urahara and Yoruichi, Ichigo and his friends, and finally Ichigo's dad, the youkai population of Karakura city were annihilated.

With the threat of monsters killing human civilians gone, it was understandably awkward now. Shinigami looked warily at the vizards. Yoruichi was keeping Soifon from maiming Kisuke. The soldiers of the PWCD were anywhere between begrudgingly grateful and aggravated by the presence of so many spirits. The PWCD had never had a very good working relationship with Spirits of any kind.

It didn't last long however.

Aircraft vehicles, helicopters and carriers in particular, landed to pick up the various PWCD soldiers and occasional civilians scattered across the city. The AC-130u gunship in the area began flying over to another nearby city. The squadron of fighter jets and bombers relocated to move to different nearby cities.

In total, around 85% of the total PWCD forces in Karakura City had moved on to clear out the other cities of their youkai presence. Many of that percentage began moving to the city of Nagoya for its unusually high presence of S-class monsters. This led command to believe that either the bulk of fairy tale's forces were in the city, their leadership was based there, or both. Either way, 1/8th of the entire PWCD military arm was now en route or already there.

xxXxx

Cirucci woke up in a daze.

She groaned and sat up, feeling around in a muddled haze. She noticed that whatever she was laying in was much more comfortable than the ground she had fell on.

_Click._

_Click._

_Click._

_Click._

Her eyes snapped open at the strange sound.

The Privaron Espada found herself staring down the barrels of 4 assault rifles. Standing in front of her were 5 heavily armored beings, 4 of which had rifles aimed at her. The 5th was hefting a particularly large rifle with a tiny box on the bottom. Unlike most arrancar, Cirucci had a broad range of things she studied up on. She knew much about shinigami, a little bit about Quincy, and the bare essentials of augments. Most notably was that they could move faster than a sonido with just their passive speed, and that they used tubular weapons that shot small blades at the speed of a sonido. She also heard the gossip around Las Noches of how 4 of such augments butchered quite a few arrancar in surprise attacks, before they could even really fight back.

Taking all that into account, she was fairly certain that she would lose against 5 of such attackers.

"Cirucci?" The 3 digit arrancar's head whipped at the voice. Only arrancar, Aizen, Gin, or Tousen, knew her name. When she caught sight of who called her name out, she paused.

"Neliel?" Cirucci was slack jawed.

Neliel had disappeared a great many years ago. When no could find her or her fraccion, and no one had ever seen her leave, it was assumed that she had taken her 'friends' and fled. She was branded a traitor and promptly replaced a few months later by Tia Harribel. Cirucci was tempted to get angry at her for her desertion but then she remembered that…thing Aizen had unleashed on her and the other arrancar.

"Neliel, what are you doing here?" Cirucci exclaimed. She then noticed that Neliel was standing directly behind the 5 super humans. The super soldiers themselves didn't seem to care in the slightest about the other, more powerful arrancar's proximity. She also just realized Nel was wearing human clothing; a white t-shirt, camo pants, and boots not at all like the ones Aizen dispenses.

"Oh…I work here kind of." The ex-tercera espada stated with an embarrassed look. Nel kinda rubbed her neck and looked away. Cirucci took a few seconds to process what she just heard.

"You… what?" She stated with heavy confusion.

Suddenly a man walked into the crowded room. Nel looked over her shoulder at him, while the augments barely glanced backward. The human was only a few inches taller than her, and very muscular.

"Fall off trident squad. She won't be getting violent anytime soon." The man stated. The augments nodded once and pointed their weapons to the ground before stepping back.

"Hello miss?" he started. She stared at him warily before speaking.

"Cirucci Thunderwich."

"Well Ms. Cirucci, can you inform us why you're here? Las Noches is long ways away." The privaron Espada's face scrounged up bitterly. Neliel noticed.

"Aizen has betrayed us." Cirucci grounded out harshly, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth in barely contained fury.

"What!" Nel screamed. The man jumped as the arrancar was right by his ear when she spoke up.

The tercera Espada, like most arrancar, held Aizen in high regards. He was the only person to go out of their way to help hollows, empower them, and help them reach their dreams. He was, by all rights, a hero in Huecco Mundo. To hear such accusations from a fellow arrancar was shocking to say the least.

Cirucci kept going.

"Aizen created a weird creature. It's a hybrid of an arrancar and a super-human." The augments around her seemed to get a lot bigger and meaner at that part. They were angered by that statement and she couldn't bring herself to blame them. "It had the armor and everything. It also had a zanpokutou that was melded with a gun. It was faster than any of us could hope to be. Aizen had it-" Cirucci broke off. She never considered herself as having any true friends, but there were at least those she could tolerate and somewhat, 'hung out' with. To know that likely every arrancar in Las Noches was dead, was a very depressing thought for her.

"Cirucci. What did Aizen have it do?"

"He unleashed it on us! It killed us methodically, from strongest to weakest, starting with the two Espada that remained in Las Noches. Then it killed Rudobon, Gantenbainne, and Dordoni. It would've gotten me to, had Luppi not distracted it. Right now, I'm guessing it's already killed everyone that was left in Las Noches except for Aizen, Gin, and Tousen." Nel stood in shocked silence. The HSF commander chose this moment to interrupt.

"What do you mean "Espada that remained"?" Nel suddenly jolted at that particular statement.

"Aizen sent 4/5ths of his army to soul society, including the Espada. He only left the two weakest Espada and around 200 arrancar in Las Noches to defend it. Or more accurately use as practice dummies for his new monster." Cirucci bitterly stated.

"Apparently they won. Hundreds of Shinigami appeared in Karakura just a few hours ago." Cirucci went wide eyed.

"The shinigami were defeated?" She asked, more curious than anything. She should've felt happy to know that her team was winning, but the knowledge of Aizen's true nature made it difficult to derive any joy.

"Yes. And if what you said is true, then eventually that force of arrancar will return to Las Noches and realize what's happened. From there, they should de-throne Aizen themselves." The HSF commander stated.

"I doubt it. Aizen plans to invade the real world. He could just grab all the arrancar in Seireitei and kill them all, or set them on the human realm. Either way, he won't be found out until it's too late." Cirucci deflated.

Nel put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She and Cirucci may not have been strictly friends, but they never had any reason to dislike each other. The leader of the HSF stood there, contemplating what he had just heard. Trident squad excused themselves out, seeing as there was no longer a reason for them to be present.

"I need to report this to the President. This is officially a war and he needs to be informed of everything." The man paused for a moment. "Especially this hybrid creature. A hostile augment with hollow powers would be hard to fight."

"It had a name."

The man paused where he stood. "What?"

"The hybrid. Aizen named it. He called it 'The Meta'." The man nodded once.

"Nel, you know her best. I trust you to keep her out of trouble until I return."

"Yes sir, chief!" Nel beamed and made a two fingered salute. The burly man chuckled at her antics and exited the room.

xxXxx

Karakura City

The PWCD weren't particularly busy at the moment. With all the spirits running around, the youkai presence in the city was almost completely erased. That left the remaining super soldiers that hadn't been re-deployed to search for pockets of hidden civilians to evacuate. Emphasis on the word 'hidden'. Even when cycling through multiple vision modes, trying to find a well hidden group of civilians was a headache. After a couple dozen groups had been found across the city, and sent by helicopter off the country to safe locations, it was largely being assumed that they had successfully transported everyone.

Now, however, the super soldiers had absolutely nothing left to do except patrol the, now quite literal, ghost town.

The hundreds of spirits that had shown up in Karakura city had claimed the city as their own, for the time being. The PWCD didn't like having to deal with a third party, in an already volatile situation, but what other choice was there? The PWCD couldn't move enough troops away from their current position in Japan to launch an invasion to help the shinigami retake Soul Society. They were facing serious issues from the other governments of the world over their failure to stop this attack by the youkai. They were inevitably going to have to bring _everything_ out into the public with the amount of news coverage teams swarming to the island country of japan. No doubt they had seen augments combating the monsters and enchanted plants by now. Beyond that, they have to deal with those that would be out for blood after this attack.

The PWCD, at worst case scenario, could be looking at total disbandment.

They had to play their cards right and plan very carefully. Sending soldiers to die for an objective they couldn't possibly succeed in accomplishing, due to their harrowed state, was most certainly not going to help. The current situation was not favorable, and the president himself would be lying if he said the PWCD has seen darker days. However, there was faith that they would pull through. There was already a plan in place to employ the shinigami entirely to defending Japan from all attacks, while the PWCD cracked down on hollow incursions with ferocity. When their numbers swelled and at least a few super powers of the world were equipped to defend from monsters and hollows to a degree by themselves, the PWCD would take the shinigami and launch an offensive on Aizen and his forces. On paper it was simple, but the amount political battles, public outcries, and human retaliatory attacks would no doubt put holes into the seemingly simple plan. It was entirely feasible and the few flaws that were there could be worked through. All it took was maintaining a cool head and a bit of luck.

Unfortunately, luck wasn't on their side.

The shinigami surrounding Karakura all paused or froze in terror, near simultaneously. Several PWCD reiatsu radars went flying off the charts. Even the augments in Karakura city, and whatever other living beings still remained felt an odd feeling pulse through them. The spirits all turned their heads toward the sky. The augments followed their gaze and saw something that would haunt them for years to come.

Hundreds of gargantas opened in the skies of Karakura.

The world seemed to go still as an army of hundreds of arrancar exited from the dimensional rifts. Following the arrancar were easily 3 times as many hollows of varying classes, though most of which were normal hollows. The amount of reiatsu this force of hollows pumped out was enough to drive fear into the hearts of even the shinigami captains. The PWCD soldiers for their part furiously radioed command about the situation. Orders were being sent out for all PWCD forces in Japan to be rerouted back to Karakura City, to defend from an imminent invasion.

Japan was under assault from another enemy to humanity.

xxXxx

Aizen stood at the forefront of his army.

He admitted to himself that he was impressed by their performance. He expected at least half of his overall force to be dead when Gin reported back. To hear they had taken Seireitei while taking relatively light casualties had convinced him that these arrancar could be of further use than he initially expected. He intended to simply use them as cannon fodder against the shinigami before he cleaned up what was left.

Now, however, the true test began.

Below him were the remnants of the Gotei 13. Hundreds of scattered and defeated shinigami were waiting to be put out of their misery. Dotting their ranks, were the vizards, Ichigo and his friends, Yoruichi, Kisuke, Isshin, and a couple hard to spot PWCD soldiers. Aizen not only expected, but counted on the humans to appear. If his arrancar and hollow army conquered both the shinigami and the super humans, than he would be satisfied with them and allow them to live in his empire. The shinigami are going to be extinguished from existence, no matter the result of their battle. The augments, he would have to dwell on for a little while. Depending on the full process required to make a human into an augment, he would either destroy them all or take a few alive to create his new army of hybrids.

Aizen had also brought along the Meta with him, explaining to his espada that he and Szayel created it from the captured human augment, and wanted to test it in combat. Knowledge of the disturbing creature's origins was enough for the espada to come to the conclusion that they didn't want to know any more than that. For the duration of the battle, he and his personal entourage, Gin, Tousen, and now the Meta, would observe the fighting from a comfortable distance. When it was clear that the arrancar and hollows would lose, he'd send his entourage to turn the tide back in his favor. Then he'd destroy the remaining arrancar for proving their worthlessness to him.

Aizen listened as he heard the sound of roaring engines. He had read up on human military, and found out what exactly those war machines were. He was intrigued by the idea of weapons that turned even the lowest human into a dangerous threat against the likes of the espada. There were even a few in development that didn't require human direction at all, and could fight by themselves. He was quickly disappointed however. They were easily destroyed, if they could be hit. And they would have to land and re-fuel eventually. They were effective to be sure, but their flaws were easy to capitalize off of. Aizen had figured out several ways he could remove them. Seeing as they were human weapons, however, he would see if his arrancar could defeat them as well.

Aizen glanced forward and saw the Meta obediently standing in front of him, like a guard dog patiently waiting to be let off its leash. He then skimmed his eyes across the army of arrancar and hollows behind him. They were each bloodthirsty and waiting eagerly for the attack order.

"After this last battle, all our dreams will be realized. The shinigami will no longer be able to oppose us, as well as the humans. We will rule all three worlds, with arrancar as the dominant species, and me as your ruler." Aizen turned from them and looked down on his enemy with an air superiority. He realized he already won. This was just him putting the final nail in the coffin. "Destroy them."

His army flew past him fast enough to cause a gust. Aizen and his entourage simply stood there, unperturbed. The sounds of explosions, screaming, and violence resounded from below.

The final battle was underway.

xxXxx

Author's note: Well here's the payoff. This is what the entire story has finally led up to (and also what the battle of Karakura should've really been like). One army versus another with no pretense of honorable combat to get in anyone's way.

Also: a reviewer claimed that they clicked on my story to see normal humans fight monsters, not super humans fight monsters (which was mentioned in the first chapter). Then they said that I should put it in the summary so others don't waste their time. I'm not so much irritated as I am intrigued that someone would see a story, read a chunk of it, and then complain that I didn't leave a warning that normal everyday humans are not fighting and winning against death gods and soul eating spirits.

The only way I could think of for a normal human to fight anything in bleach is from behind the cockpit of a jet fighter (which happens multiple times in this story). Sorry, but unless humanity spontaneously gets access to those starcraft suits the terrans use, a normal human likely won't be able to touch a standard shinigami. Now a modern day human army versus hollow or shinigami armies would be more even, but then I'd have to make up a reason why humanity can suddenly see spirits after thousands of years of being unable to do so, and how devastating of loses both side would take. Eventually humanity would just say 'f*ck it' and launch a bunch of nukes at every dimension that isn't theirs. Not much of a story then. Anyway, enough ranting about an anonymous comment. Rate and review!


	22. Into the fray

Author's note: Bleach fans (Transcendent being fan in particular), stop asking me to label this story an AU or a bash-fic. It was somewhat understandable the first 3 times someone asked me to, over points I didn't properly explain. Now it's just getting annoying.

"_Once more into the fray_

_Into the last good fight I'll ever know_

_Live and die on this day_

_Live and die on this day"_

_-Joe Carnahan_

xxXxx

**Into the Fray**

_**BOOOOOM!**_

A building collapsed from an off target cero.

Across the city of Karakura, chaos reigned. Arrancar and shinigami once again crossed swords with each other in bitter combat. Karakura was the last line of defense for Soul Society, before the hollows had free reign of the entire dimension. Both sides knew this, which drove the shinigami to fight even harder than before.

Though to many, it was a lost cause.

They had been defeated in their own home once. The arrancar had a full day to rest while the shinigami had to fight the youkai immediately after retreating. It was a seemingly doomed fight that the arrancar would surely win. However, there was one factor that neither side had truly acknowledged once the battle began.

This was the PWCD's home field.

xxXxx

Javier twisted his body out the way of a male arrancar's sword. In response, he launched a punch to its throat and kicked out its knee. As the arrancar fell to one knee, Javier stabbed down with an 8-inch survival knife. The blade was shoved down the evolved hollow's throat and cut open the unprotected and vulnerable flesh. Even as the arrancar flailed, Javier held firm, twisting the knife around to cut whatever unprotected flesh he could. He gripped the arrancar's head back with his free hand for a better angle. The skull-helmet wearing augment was blissfully reminded of when he would gut the fish he caught when fishing. Even as the arrancar's blood started flooding out its mouth, over its face, and all over his hands he continued to cut anything and everything in the arrancar's throat that he could find. With a great yank, the augment tore his bloodied hand and knife out the arrancar's mouth. The evolved hollow's body fell backward, blood pooling out its mouth and onto the ground.

3 more low level arrancar watched this act with a small amount of horror. Being hollows, they had eaten many things alive, especially other hollows. The act of such a violent kill wasn't unheard of, but it took them by surprise that a reiatsu-less human was capable of it.

"Who's next?" The human asked. The grinning skull on his helmet was splattered with arrancar blood, giving the human a vicious psychotic appearance.

The arrancar charged at him, two of them wielding normal katana shaped zanpokutou, and one of them wielding a staff with an axe head on the end. The one with the axe staff swung at him in a large horizontal arc, meaning to bisect him. Javier dunked under the swing with ease. Popping up, he quickly punched the arrancar in its left ear. The arrancar's hand clamped against the left side of his head in pain, as it stumbled back. A female arrancar came at him with her katana blade poised for an overhead strike. Javier turned his body sideways and the blade missed entirely. The augment jammed his knife hilt deep into the arrancar's eyeball, and through its brain. He yanked his knife out and let the creature's body fall to his feet. A male arrancar with a horn shaped hollow fragment sonido behind him, with his katana shaped zanpokutou raised to strike. Javier whipped around and reverse elbowed the arrancar in the jaw. He then followed up by slicing the arrancar's eyes with his still bloodied knife, blinding it. The now blinded spirit howled in agony, its hands covering its eyes in an attempt to ease the pain.

The arrancar with the staff axe recovered from its ear ache and came again. Javier went low, swept the arrancar's legs out, making it tumble to the ground. Before it could get up, Javier straddled the arrancar's chest, and shoved his thumbs into the arrancar's eye sockets.

"_AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" _Blood gushed out, and all over the augment's gauntleted hands as he plunged his thumbs deeper into the hollow's eye sockets.

From his side vision he caught the arrancar he blinded, point its hand at both him and the arrancar he ways eye-gouging. When he saw a cero build up on the appendage, he quickly pulled his thumbs out and rolled away from the still screaming arrancar. The both arrancar being previously blinded didn't realize their folly until it was too late. The first arrancar fired its cero in the direction of the sound it heard, unknowingly killing its comrade.

Javier took advantage of the arrancar's blindness and pulled out his side arm. The augment launched a straight kick to the arrancar's throat, making it take a step back. When it opened its mouth in surprise, Javier fired point blank. The bullet blew out the evolved hollow's entire mouth out, without a hierro protecting the area, the bullet had the full effect it would on an unprotected human, leaving nothing but a bloody mess in the place of what was once a mouth. Javier left it to die of blood loss as he went looking for more targets to dispatch.

Across from the departing augment was a group of 8 shinigami with their jaws on the ground. They intended to fight and die honorably against the more powerful arrancar, yet this seemingly weak human brutally dispatched them all in record time.

xxXxx

Commando team Zi was deep inside a hard fight.

All around them, shinigami and arrancar were exchanging slashes and strikes. Many of the arrancar were fighting with their bare hands, due to their hierro eliminating the need to parry an attack. With their bare hands, they could slice and stab through flesh as effectively as most swords. With the obvious advantage their enemies possessed, it seemed that the shinigami were doomed to defeat.

Then the hollows were ambushed.

7ft tall, armored humans seemingly materialized from thin air. There was a brief pause in the fighting as the arrancar began to notice the new presence that no one had sensed. The commandos didn't give them long to gawk before viciously attacking. Zi 1 sucker punched an arrancar that didn't immediately tear its attention away from the shinigami it was fighting. Commando armor made the average augment strong enough to even the strength of an average level arrancar and shinigami. Coupled with the intense speed and combat skill that only augments possessed, it wasn't even much of a fight.

As the first arrancar stumbled back, a second one came at him from behind with its sword drawn. Zi 1 slammed his forearm against the sword handle of the zanpokutou and stopped the swing cold. He followed up by kicking out the arrancar's legs from under him, making the evolved hollow fall flat on his chest. Zi actual finished it by bringing his leg up and dropping his heal down on the arrancar's neck, in a textbook example of an axe-kick. There was an telling _crack _to signify the hollow's demise. Another arrancar came at him, only to get its face blown open from a down scaled rail rifle round to the head. Turning his head, the commando squad leader saw Zi 3 standing behind him with a smoking M-8 kondra.

Zi 2 sprung up a hand strike by a female arrancar with his forearm, before counterattacking with a punch to the ribs. The commando struck again with two more punches to the stomach, and a palm strike to the jaw. The arrancar was sent reeling backward, thoroughly hammered and gasping for air. A nearby shinigami finished the dazed woman by driving his zanpokutou into her eye.

There was a pause as the two soldiers looked at each other. They nodded once and went to battle once more.

An arrancar sonido'd directly behind said shinigami with a look of rage on his face. He went to stab his hand through the shinigami that killed his ally. Zi 2 quickly charged it and tackled the arrancar with a linebacker form. The commando and arrancar crashed through the side of a building in their tussel, landing in what seemed to be a hastily abandoned office. The commando rolled away and landed in a combat ready stance. The arrancar stood up and glared at the thing that interrupted his revenge.

Despite their close range, the arrancar punched his fist out and fired a bala at the human. The commando, for his part, twisted his torso sideways and dodged the energy attack entirely. The bala blew open another hole in the wall behind the augment. The commando quickly charged forward and struck the arrancar with a right hook, left upper cut, and right forearm bash. The arrancar tumbled backward through an abandoned cubicle.

Before the commando could push his advantage, another arrancar shoulder charged into his wide open back, launching the augment through approximately 4 cubicles and a water cooler.

Findor stood there, with a look of concealed rage covering his features. He was the last of his fraccion to have survived the human's infiltration of Las Noches. The Espada he served under was dead as well, killed in the invasion of Seireitei.

Now that he was alone, his life served no purpose other than to die in combat, as was proper for an arrancar.

The arrancar the human had battered earlier, stood back up and tried to face the human again, but Findor stopped him.

"What? He's mine! I was here first!"

"There are 3 more of these types of humans outside, fighting with the shinigami against us. Go fight one of them. I'll deal with this human myself."

Zi 2 shakily stood up from the mess of materials he was covered in, shaking most of it off. As he looked up, he saw a blond haired arrancar walking toward him with its sword drawn. The commando had come to his senses by now, but pretended to act dazed for a better opening in his opponent. He had lost his kondra from the surprise attack, which ruled out just shooting the bastard and being done with it. Since his enemy had steel skin by nature, even a perfect knife throw to the eye could be stopped by the creature simply blinking in surprise. When the arrancar finally closed the distance, it stood and glowered at him for only a half second. Then it swung its sword at his head.

Zi 2 suddenly threw off his façade of being dazed and counter-attacked.

xxXxx

Once they received word of the attack on Karakura, all forces were ordered to re-locate to the city of Karakura and repel the attack by any means necessary. The arrancar invasion was deemed a higher threat than the youkai could ever hope to be. What's more, the arrancar were invading in force. The PWCD had to destroy the arrancar threat now, when they could converge all their war assets in a single place. In Japan, with all their armed forces already within a few hours of the enemies main force, access to all the weaponry and vehicles they can bring to bear, as well as the shinigami remnants acting as a buffer until the rest of the PWCD armed forces arrive, it seemed like this was the perfect scenario in their favor for destroying the arrancar threat once and for all. They'd be fools not to take full advantage of it. Of course with fairy tale affiliated youkai still having a high presence across Japan, they couldn't simply be ignored. So the PWCD decided to stop doing what they've been doing for those ungrateful monsters for years.

They left monster kind at the mercy of the human warmachine.

The US marines had established a foothold on the far side of Japan, with the US army and navy coming to reinforce them. The Chinese military had just demolished the force of sea monsters and mermaids that fairy tale had tried to fight them with, and were establishing a beach head for them to move in with. With the forces of Fairy Tale utterly devastated across Japan, and all but wiped out in the city of Karakura, it was a simple matter of cleaning up whatever remnants remained of the scattered monsters. The PWCD decided to simply point the two major superpowers in the right direction, and leave sweeping up what's left of the monsters to them.

They would handle the arrancar.

As squads PWCD super soldiers pulled out of the cities of Japan, entire companies, maybe even battalions of American and Chinese armed forces would soon replace them.

The US began launching a D-day like invasion of the border cities of Japan. They launched a simultaneous invasion of the coastal cities with enough man power and weaponry to completely overwhelm any defenses the monsters may have made up. The streets of Morioka, Aomori, and Mito were violently stormed by the US marines. Tanks and APC's rolled down the streets, rolling over the bodies of Japanese civilians and slain monsters alike. Gunships, helicopters, unmanned flying drones, bombers, and low flying Jets filled the skies.

xxXxx

Morioka

The youkai that remained quickly noticed that they were being attacked by normal humans, not the super human warriors they had grown to fear in recent years. Unsure of whether to be relieved or insulted at the change to 'weaker' enemies, the monsters attacked.

That is, they charged in an unorganized mass.

Trolls and other massive species of monsters came storming down the streets, only to be cut down by 15 different flavors of heavy ordinance. Abrams blew apart monsters on sight. Apache helicopters, initially designed to destroy heavily armored battle tanks, instead found themselves hurling tank gutting missiles at collections charging giant monsters who thought themselves impervious to ballistic weaponry. Chunks and blown off limbs were all that usually remained.

Carnivorous plants that were responsible for murdering the vast majority of the populace were racked with minigun fire from passing helicopters. Passing jets dropped napalm bombs on the plant life, burning them away in chemical created fire. As long as there was something capable of burning, the napalm would continue to burn through it in a manner vaguely similar to highly corrosive acid.

The marines trailing behind the spearhead of tanks and aircraft gave supporting fire and protected the tanks from the more clever monsters who tried to board the vehicles. Lizardmen and other humanoid youkai came rushing out the buildings the vehicle spearhead had passed by. The marines quickly opened fire with their small arms weapons. The youkai in general had never had a good understanding of how humanity fought wars. Only the more privileged youkai (vampires in particular) or the more human inclined species of youkai ever knew enough about human culture to know why fighting a human military of any kind was a bad idea. It showed, because none of those species were present while this slaughter was occurring. Assault rifles, light and heavy machine guns, and then finally close ranged shotguns opened up on the ambushing youkai. The monsters fell down to a hail of bullets that cut down even the larger of the youkai to peices with some focusing fire.

Inevitably, however, enough monsters made it through the hail of bullets and into the firing line of the now panicked marines.

A lizardman rushed forward and slashed at a marine with its claws. Soldier cried out as the nails tore through the man's face, permanently mutilating it if the soldier managed to survive. Before it could finish the human, it was tackled by another human who dropped his SAW light machine gun in favor of drawing his 8-inch knife. The youkai was stronger but the marine had actual training for situations such as this. Or at least situations such as this, against other humans. The marine stabbed down into the lizardman's abdomen, penetrating the scales that protected its soft flesh underneath. The monster cried out and head butted the marine off. The soldier was knocked on his ass and his helmet fell off from the impact. The lizardman stood up and jabbed its claws into the marine's torso. The standard issue dragon skin vest, designed to stop bullets, held firm against the penetration attempt but only lightly dampened the force behind the youkai's blow. The marine was winded by the strike, while the youkai was confused how his nails failed to impale the human when it worked against multiple human civilians. Lashing out, more in desperation than any actual sense, the human kicked out and scored a blow into the lizardman's chest, knocking the youkai over and making it tumble on its back again. The soldier stood up, and whipped out his side arm, immediately pointing it at the youkai.

Most people would hesitate at killing in what was seemingly cold blood. The youkai was on its back, and he had a loaded gun aimed at it. The soldier pulled the trigger over and over, losing count of how many times he shot. He only stopped firing when the creature stopped flinching with every shot. As the marine stared at this other-worldly being he had just killed, he felt no sadness or empathy as was usual with killing other humans. He only felt satisfaction at defeating it in combat. And he realized why. He wasn't killing someone with a family or hopes and dreams. He wasn't extinguishing a life that deserved better than what it got. He was riding the world of evil. The evidence was all around him of what these things had done to the innocent civilians and he felt no pity in his heart. When the monster coughed and signaled that it was still alive, if only barely, the marine walked over to it.

It was a pathetic sight to behold. This monster who had killed God knows how many innocent people, was lying on its back in a growing pool of its blood. Its human clothing was stained in blood, from where he could see his shots hit. For some odd reason, this only made the soldier more furious. To know this thing was innocently walking among fellow humans only minutes before transforming and murdering them made his blood boil. The monster looked up at the human with fierce conviction in its eye. The youkai had no regrets about what it had done. The marine to this day could say he felt no remorse for what he did either. He aimed his gun at the monster's face and pulled the trigger. Again and again and again. The gun clicked empty after the first two shots but he still kept pulling the trigger.

Across the multiple conveys of vehicles, similar skirmishes played out. It was largely in favor of the marines due to superior numbers, fire arms, and cover fire from nearby tanks and helicopters. However, the soldiers were rattled at how vicious and seemingly insane these things were. The youkai were inhumane monstrosities that needed to be wiped out. As the force of marines pushed deeper and deeper into the cities, finding plenty of resistance from both youkai and enchanted plants alike, the feeling of hatred only solidified.

xxXxx

Author's note: In any war you see, both sides will always demonize the other. They do this so that people will be motivated to fight them, and won't have any remorse or second thoughts when ordered to fight and inevitably kill them. No matter how morally wrong however, the average soldier won't shoot another man and feel proud that he killed him. Maybe satisfaction at a job well done, but he'd have to have gotten use to the concept of killing to feel even that.

For humans fighting monsters, it's an entirely different story. There's no emotional connection that usually holds a soldier back from killing another soldier. A marine squad could execute a full group of youkai, World War 2 firing line style, and they wouldn't feel the slightest bit of remorse. Without the question of "is this right?" constantly going through a soldiers head, they suddenly get a lot more dangerous and vicious than before. A man with a weapon and no second thought about killing you is far scarier to face than any monster could be.


	23. Counterattack

Author's Note: Pretty good feedback last chapter. Anyway here's a continuation of the giant cluster fuck of a battlefield that is Japan.

Also, I encourage criticism, so long as it is _actual _criticism. Like pointing out a problem I can work on, and recommending a solution.

As a form of forewarning, you commonly see the super powered people in bleach fighting. They're the ones that leave small cities looking like wastelands in the aftermath of their battles. The normal grunts and average warriors however are usually taken as a joke when it comes to fighting. In the fight between Yoruichi and Sofion, a large group of stealth division ninjas were defeated by yoruichi in a few seconds. And after the fighting is done, and Yoruichi and Soifon become friends after just trying to kill each other, neither seem to particularly care that most of, if not all the division was just taken down and left there. Several more instances like this occur during bleach, where anyone not 5th seat or higher is taken down by one of the stronger characters sneezing in their general direction. They seem more like normal humans with swords and access to spirit magic, when compared to the more prominent characters. Their arrancar counter parts are pretty much the same story, with the exception of them having steel skin or 'hierro's' (which varies in effectiveness, depending on how powerful the arrancar is). They have ressureccions (I know I spelt it wrong) to balance it out some, but it's doubtful that any PWCD soldier worth their salt would let a fight go on for that long. Obviously this doesn't apply to fraccion level arrancar and higher, but keep this mind.

In short, don't expect any form of drawn out fighting between power armored super soldiers and low level arrancar that are at heart, just notably stronger, bulletproof, humans.

xxXxx

**Counterattack**

December 25th 2008 Japan, Karakura city

Findor staggered backward, more in surprise and shock than actual pain.

The augment had struck hard and fast. Unless he wanted to end up becoming like his fellow fraccion, he would have to respect the abilities of these humans. That means he would have to keep a good distance for the sake of not giving the human an opening. Their species seemingly relied on both their opponents under-estimating them and purposely making amateur mistakes in a fight, and taking cheap shots at every opportunity. The most obvious counter to this was to attack at range, but these 'super humans' had demonstrated the ability to dodge most attacks as easily as most could parry. Inevitably though, the human would slip up, get backed into a corner, or get distracted at some point.

When that happened, he would end the human.

Zi 2 charged forward with a knife in hand. Findor flinched at the sheer speed and ferocity the human came with. He sonido'd a few feet behind human with a Bala ready to fire. The fraccion was shocked to see the human had already turned around and was zeroing in on him. Findor quickly fired his bala at the human, who quickly threw himself to the left. Findor turned and fired again at the armored human, who ducked under the ball of reiatsu. The human responded by whipping out his side arm and putting 3 shots into the arrancar's face. Findor flinched back at the annoyingly painful impacts. To him, it felt like someone throwing tiny pebbles at his unprotected face as hard as they could.

That distraction was all that the commando needed however. He quickly closed the distance with the arrancar and launched a punch.

Time seemed to halt as he looked down and saw that the arrancar had charged another Bala and that it was being fired at him from point blank. At this close he wouldn't be able to dodge. Regardless, the commando tried anyway. He twisted his torso sideways as the Bala traveled forward. The commando leaned to the side, sucked in his gut, and tried to push off the ground in another direction all at once. Even with his frantic attempts to move, the reiatsu powered attack still caught him in his side. For all the power behind the Bala however, that still was enough to deal significant damage.

The commando was blown to the side by the reiatsu attack and went crashing through the office building. The commando only stopped when he smashed against, and then went _through_ a wall.

Zi 2's commando power armor protected him from the brunt of the attack, but it wasn't enough to prevent him from being winded and bruised. At close range fighting like this, dodging those red balls of energy his opponent was liberally firing would be all but impossible, as was made evident by him crashing through the building. The commando also realized that simply battering his opponent wouldn't lead to victory, as his opponent had armored skin and the ability to heal minor injuries. A knife going through the arrancar's brain was the only way he'd confirm a kill. The problem wasn't delivering when he got into close range fighting. Reflecting back, he probably could've managed that in his initial surprise attack had he not been so focused on fooling his enemy to get in an ineffectual punch. The real issue was actually getting that close.

Then the commando realized he had active camouflage built into his armor.

Findor walked down the trail of destruction his attack left, with a charged Balas in both his hands. Findor considered himself lucky that his attack managed to do as much damage as it did to the human. Had he been a moment slower, he'd probably be dead right now. Now however, the arrancar found himself in an uncomfortable position. He was searching for an enemy that he couldn't sense, that was obviously skilled in sneaking up on people. The arrancar found himself listening to every rock that shifted, and object that clattered to the ground with extreme suspicion.

It was already bad enough that a full-fledged battle was raging just outside the building, with no obvious winner being able to be made out.

Findor came upon the wall that he sent the augment through with his Bala, but immediately frowned deeper when he couldn't locate the augment himself. Findor hated this kind of fighting solely because it was more convoluted than any other fighting he had ever been in. There was nothing straight forward about it. He could be struck from any direction and wouldn't be none the wiser until the attack actually connected. Findor began backtracking, keeping alert at all times. He suddenly got a bad feeling as he walked past a wall.

An armored fist punched clean through the wall Findor was standing next to, and grabbed his face. The arm retracted into the wall and brought Findor's head with it. The arrancar's head was yanked _through_ the hole in the wall. The first thing he noticed after being violently pulled through a wall was an armored human swinging a canister at his head. When it made contact, it exploded in his face, disorienting him in a big bright flash and a loud _BANG!_

xxXxx

Karakura city, downtown

"**Terminator teams Cobalt, Copper, and Lead deployed. Moving to engage hostiles.**"

12 Assault terminators moved in long deliberate strides towards a force of arrancar. With hammers crackling with lethal levels of electricity, and reiastu bursts powering every hammer fall, the exo-skeleton, power armored suits were all too dangerous foes to face in any form of melee combat.

A group of 20 arrancar, seeing nothing more than tin cans with a barely noticeable amount of reiatsu on each one, attacked with reckless abandon.

Yylfordt watched the conflict from the sky, at first with only bored indifference. Then his eye went wide when he saw those 'tin cans' start fighting the arrancar with their hammers.

An assault terminator swung his hammer down on an arrancar with an overhead, one arm swing. The hammer made contact with arrancar's sword, but the evolved hollow wasn't prepared for what followed. A large burst of reiastu and an electric discharge blasted outward from the hammerhead, sending the arrancar into the ground hard enough to leave a shallow trench. The arrancar stood back up hastily and stared at the colossal human being with wide eyes. Did that human really just…?

It should be made of note that arrancar view themselves as warriors. They fight with pride, and believe themselves as nigh undefeatable to anything that isn't an arrancar. They fight with an honor code, and believe that superior power will always decide a battle. They see themselves as warriors through and through.

The armed forces of the PWCD view themselves as soldiers. Soldiers fight solely to defend their nation, or whatever power they are loyal to, from outside threats. They believe that there is no honor in war, only a winner and a loser. They believe no battle can accurately be decided on numbers and statistics as ferocity, cunning, and sheer willpower are as decisive as any weapon.

Soldiers, no matter the similarities, are NOT warriors and have no wish to be warriors.

The assault terminator took two long strides forward before swinging his hammer again at the shell shocked arrancar.

Across the melee, the battle began to favor the heavily armored super soldiers. Every hammer fall let loose a shockwave of electricity. With so many hammer falls occurring in the exact same area, the shockwaves began overlapping across both the terminators themselves and the arrancar. The heavy power armored suits were hardened to the effects their own weapons would have on them, and fought on while calmly ignoring it.

The arrancar on the other hand were catching hell.

With so much electricity going around, the weaker of the arrancar's number were already succumbing. Those that became too disoriented by the electricity were abruptly ended by a thunder hammer coming down on their heads. Those that fought through the debilitating lightning field that had been created by the terminators found themselves slowly being whittled down in a battle of attrition. A moment of hesitation, be it from the pain of being violently electrocuted while fighting, or wondering whether it was better to dodge or try to block an incoming hammer, spelt inglorious death by bludgeoning. Those few that managed to sonido out of the lightning field's range were dragged back in by terminators short range accelerating to the arrancar's position and attacking it again.

It was by no extent a fair fight to begin with.

The terminators quickly dispatched the remaining arrancar by ganging up on those that still fought on. With armor completely impenetrable to the weak strokes by the low level arrancar, the assault terminators had no need to defend, which meant that all they could do was attack. A thunder hammer swing crumpled a normal hollow on contact. All low-level arrancar being low-level menos hollows when they were transformed, the only difference was that their bodies weren't _as_ mutilated as a normal hollow's would be. A normal hollow, post hammer blow, looked like a candle figurine that had been melted halfway through. A low level arrancar looked more like a normal human after they had been ran over by a speeding oil rig. The difference was superficial at best, but at least the lowly menos arrancar had a _chance _to survive a direct hit.

Yylfordt decided he had had enough entertainment watching those cannon fodder arrancar be slaughtered like lambs. He decided to deal with these humans himself.

"Cero."

A red beam lanced across the 3 front most terminators in the group of 12. Terminator armor could survive extreme heat, but ceros only got hotter, the more powerful they were. This cero being fired from a powerful fraccion, the terminators survived, but sections of their armor were warped, and a few parts were melted outright. The force behind the cero itself sent the 3 heavy power armor suits flying backward into their allies.

Yylfordt sonido'd directly in front of the terminators with his sword drawn and an arrogant smirk on his face. The terminator didn't flinch, though you really wouldn't be able to in a suit of armor that thick.

"**Arrancar sighted. Adjuchas level**."

"You can read my power level? Interesting."

_POP!_

Yylfordt quickly turned around and raised his sword to block a hammer swing. He flinched at the electric discharge, but after observing how it affected the weaker arrancar, he knew he could take it.

_POP! POP!_

Yylfordt sonido'd away as a pair of thunder hammers passed through his previous position. He reappeared in the midst of the 9 terminators that hadn't engaged.

The fraccion placed his palm against the chest plate of the nearest terminator, and charged a cero. Even as said terminator had moved to swing his hammer at him, he simply stood there with a smirk. When the hammer began to speedily approach his face, he finally fired his cero at point blank. The terminator flew backward as a red beam blasted into his chest. The bipedal tank armor sailed backward 15 feet from before hitting the ground hard enough to leave a trench. The entire chest portion of the armor was melted, with the charred remains of the piloting augment visible. The terminator was dead before he hit the ground.

_POP! POP! POP! POP!_

4 assault terminators appeared on all sides of him, with raised hammers. Thinking fast, Yylfordt sonido'd into the sky to avoid the hammers. He could reliably survive a direct hit to the body from one hammer, but multiple would likely maim or injure him.

_POP! POP!_

The fraccion looked up into the air and his eyes widened. 2 terminators were falling the ground, directly over his head. They both swung their hammers down as they fell. The arrancar blocked both hammers with his sword but underestimated what the combination of reiatsu, electricity, and blunt force would do to him.

Yylfordt was launched into the dirt by the combined hammer blast.

_POP! POP! POP!_

3 more terminator appeared on either side of him while he was trying to get up. He sonido'd just far enough to escape the trio of hammer falls. When the area he had just occupied exploded in electricity and artificially created reiatsu, he realized his disadvantage.

_POP!_

_POP! POP!_

_POP!_

_POP! POP!_

The assault terminators had developed a strategy for fighting stronger opponents that any one of them couldn't face alone. They called it 'leap-frogging'. The terminators would repeatedly attack and then disengage, one after the other, so that their opponent never got a chance at rest. Yylfordt was forced on the defensive as the hammers kept coming. Realizing that at this rate, he would be destroyed, he decided to go back on the offensive.

The fraccion sonido'd backward, making the next terminator in line to attack stumble forward and only strike the dirt in front of him with his hammer.

Yylfordt fired a hastily made cero at the terminator. It wasn't as powerful as the last one, but it smashed against the terminator's head and melted the entire helmet.

The terminator began flailing and prying at his helmet, as his oxygen supply had been cut off. Quickly, the augment wearing the terminator armor ripped off the melted remains of his helmet and breathed in the fresh air greedily. The human looked at the general area of the arrancar hatefully. His helmet's vision settings allowed him to see spiritual beings, without it he was blind to what he was fighting.

"You bastard!" The terminator growled.

Yylfordt decided to test a theory.

He sonido'd forward in the face of the helmetless terminator and deliberately gave a weak punch to the terminator, in its chest. The terminator stepped back once at the force of the attack, and then growled at the arrancar. He swung his hammer in an overhead swing, unknowing of the fact that he was dooming himself more so than the target he intended to strike.

Yylfordt blocked the hammer strike with his sword.

The electricity burst shocked him, but the arrancar was able to bear it. The helmetless terminator on the other hand…

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"_

Terminator armor was sealed and hardened to the effects of electricity when it covered the entire body. With the absence of a helmet, the terminator was exposed to the shockwave of his own attack. The electricity coursed through the augments face and coursed through his entire body, looking for an exit point. As the rest of his body was encased in armor, the current could only exit from the way it also entered. His head.

The terminator's head popped open like a watermelon, gore, bits of bone, and electric discharge shooting in every direction outward.

Yylfordt was surprised as he wasn't expecting the human's own weapon to have such a… violent effect on its owner. The now headless body of the terminator fell backward.

_POP! POP!_

_POP!_

_POP! POP! POP!_

_POP! POP!_

Yylfordt eye's widened as 8 terminators appeared on all sides of him, or behind those that already surrounded him. All of front-most augments swung their hammers in unison, more likely out of desire to kill him as fast as possible, rather than because of any actual coordination. He looked up as he got ready to sonido, but found 2 of those 8 terminators had appeared directly above him to fall down on him. His moment of hesitation cost him dearly, because he was struck by 4 thunder hammers at once and smashed into the ground in violent explosion of electricity and focused reiatsu.

The fraccion was on the ground, feeling more than a few bones in his body broken and quite a few organs ruptured. His muscles sparked and spasmed from the insanely high amount of voltage that had been forcefully pumped into his body. He had no illusions about his superiority right then. If he didn't do something, he would die then and there.

As the terminators raised their hammers for the coup de grace, or 'blow of mercy' they heard a pained mutter from the arrancar.

"Impale, teno torro."

The remaining 10 terminators surrounding the fraccion flew backward as a flesh of yellow exploded outward. The various suits went crashing to the ground in the surprise attack, completely shell shocked. As they stood up, they saw the yellow orb subtly subsiding into a large creature.

As the terminators stood up and readied themselves for another round of combat, they laid eyes on the fraccion before them. He had turned into what resembled a large Minotaur. The arrancar activating his sword, while growing in power, also healed his injuries. Now the arrancar was fighting fresh, while the terminators were fairly exhausted from a full day and a half of fighting with their only pause being the time it took to get to their destination by air.

"THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN ARRANCAR RELEASES HIS ZANPOKUTOU! YOU CANNOT WIN FEEBLE HUMANS! YOU CANNO-"

_POP! POP! POP!_

_BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!_

3 terminators teleported into the large bull's face and slammed their hammers into it. Yylfordt was knocked on his back at the surprise impact. Using sonido, the arrancar teleported back to a standing position, looking more than a little pissed at being so rudely interrupted.

"**Shut up and die arrancar**." The lead terminator of Cobalt team stated.

The 10 terminators could only attack 4 at once, at best, due to the small and thin size of the arrancar they were fighting. In this new evolved form, the fraccion made himself large enough to be attacked by all 10 assault terminators at once.

The increase in reiatsu meant they'd have to be more conscious of ceros since they'd be more powerful now, and that the bull could take a hammer swing better than before. Aside from that though, the terminators couldn't care less how powerful this enemy got.

That thought in their heads, the assault terminators attacked.

xxXxx

Karakura city, outskirts

The entire city had become a killing field.

A force of 30 augments in normal power armor, supported by 2 sonic cannon armed bunker suits moved into the city and were immediately faced with plenty of resistance.

The ground was torn apart as arrancar and hollows charged through a hail of bullets. The normal hollows died first. Due to their lack of a hierro, they were torn apart by the ballistic weapons the augments wielded. The arrancar were able to bypass that particular trap by sondoing into the midst of the augment super soldiers or using their hierros to brave to mess of bullets, and hope nothing with armor piercing rounds or high-grade explosives showed up.

What followed was a bloody melee.

Arrancar fought with honed skill and relentless will to win. The Augments fought with sheer ferocity and stubborn unacceptance to lose.

The Arrancar found that for every augment they cut down with their zanpokutou, one of their own were tackled to the ground, and had a knife shoved into whatever vulnerability the augments could find, eyes, mouths, and hollow holes, being the most common. The fighting became very gritty as the augments began throwing dirt, shoving handguns into arrancar's mouths, or double teaming individual arrancar. The arrancar had no choice but to respond with equally detestable methods of fighting when they found themselves in close ranged tussles where their weapons were made useless, such as biting, head butting, and strangling.

A bunker suit blocked a low level arrancar's sword strike with his forearm armor. The heavy suit responded by wrapping its massive gauntleted hand over the arrancar's head and lifting it off the ground. The massive 10 foot tall suit simply held the arrancar there for a moment, watching it flail and claw at its hand feebly, before walking over to a nearby car that had been abandoned. The bunker suit rammed the arrancar face first into the car, crumpling the entire front section of the vehicle from the impact.

The other bunker suit used the body of a recently killed hollow as decent vantage point for the battle they were in.

The bunker suit brought its sonic cannon to bear against the hostile arrancar, before firing.

An evolved hollow that had just killed its super human opponent, collapsed to the ground. The air between the front of the sonic cannon and the arrancar distorted from the high volume of sound waves. Blood gushed out the arrancar's ears as his eardrums exploded. The evolved hollow spasmed as it felt its inner organs rupture, and blood vessels burst. The creature began to feel his body being ripped apart from the inside out by the sonic cannon's sound waves. The arrancar was only under the focused stream of sound for about 2 second before it fell over, dead.

"**Words can hurt to, you soul eating bastard**." The bunker suit quipped before changing targets.

The next target was a tiger hollow that was trying to bite down on a fellow augment. The augment responded by holding the creature's jaws apart with his arms and pushing it away with his legs. The bunker suit was about to fire, by aiming for the hollow's lower body so the augment wouldn't be hit, but another augment came to his ally's rescue.

The augment ran up to the tiger hollow by stomping down on the creature's jaw, while pushing both hands against the hollow's upper mouth. The hollow now struggled as it felt its maw being pushed apart, far wider than it should be. The augment that had nearly been eaten, got from under the hollow and joined in. He also placed his boot on the hollow's jaw and pushed its mouth upward. Between the strength of the 2 augments, the hollow's jaw bone finally snapped.

The creature made a pathetic and chocked noise as its jaw and upper mouth were forced apart at a 180 degree angle.

For good measure, one of the augment shoved a primed grenade down the pained hollow's throat and left it to die.

The bunker suit changed targets, and aimed at a female arrancar that had made the mistake of distancing itself for a cero attack. The sonic cannon fired at the woman. Her brain turned to mush as the amps pounded her brain, through her ears. She collapsed to the ground, with blood seeping out her ears and the corners of her eyes.

As the vicious fighting between the PWCD and Aizen's arrancar continued, more and more forces from either side started showing up.

Attack helicopters and various other aircraft types passed overhead, unleashing devastating volleys of firepower on Aizen's army, where they weren't in close proximity of PWCD or shinigami forces. Cero's and balas being fired in the sky occasionally clipped aircraft, or more rarely, scored direct hits. Soon noteable numbers of aerial vehicles blew apart, and crashed downward into the city. In turn, plenty of dead arrancar and hollows fell from the sky, as the result of homing missiles and minigun fire.

The PWCD soldiers called for reinforcements, as they were having trouble breaking through the arrancar forces on the outskirts. The arrancar in turn began to move toward the outskirts upon sensing that many of their own were dying in surprisingly large amounts.

What started as a barely noticeable skirmish was now a pivotal flank and a full-fledged battle that was being fought.

xxXxx

Aizen noticed with interest that large amounts of human soldiers were starting to turn up across the city of Karakura.

He was rather interested at the style they were attacking though.

Squads of super humans, every bit as skilled as those that infiltrated Las Noches, were appearing and disappearing across the city. They showed up, turned the tide of a battle between the shinigami and arrancar, or swept up what was left of those battles where the arrancar had won, and then they would drop off the face of the earth, only to reappear for another attack.

His Espada commanders noticed and several began sending numerous lower level arrancar to hunt them down.

He immediately labeled those arrancar that took that action as idiots. While those particular humans were causing a ruckus and then hiding before they could be hunted, the main force of super humans were pushing hard into the city from all sides. With more arrancar being pulled away to hunt for soldiers that were obviously distractions, the augmented humans fought their way through the arrancar that remained far more easily than they would have, had so many arrancar not been recalled.

Aizen paused for a moment.

He felt Nnoitra get snuffed from existence. Seeing a squadron of human fighter jet fly by the area he had just occupied, and a noticeable explosion, he concluded the fool tried to attack the planes, and was summarily shot down in the most horrible death he could've imagined. He was killed laughably easily by a group of likely non-augmented humans, with no idea _who _they killed, just that they destroyed some arrancar that happened to enter their sights for too long. Aizen's smirk increased as he imagined what Nnoitra must be feeling, if there was a life past the afterlife.

Aizen heard a deep engine, thicker and larger than that of the jet engines he had become accustomed to hearing.

The Meta, who was floating/standing in front of him, twitched and scanned the sky.

_Oh right. The Meta retains his human memories. He must recognize that sound, and be agitated by it. _Aizen mused to himself.

Without warning, the Meta charged a blue cero in the hand not occupied by his gun/zanpokutou and fired into the clouds. When an explosion in the sky followed, Gin and Tousen looked up to the clouds as well.

They were understandably shocked when an AC-130u gunship came nose diving out the clouds, one of its engines on fire and smoking. The Meta aimed another cero at the cockpit of the large gunship. The hybrid had impeccable accuracy. Being part augment, it viewed the world in slow motion, while it moved freely. This made it seem as if it had much more time to aim than any non-augment, as well as getting a seemingly slower target. Coupled with training in how to account for how the conditions may affect accuracy and the Meta was nigh incapable of missing. The Meta let loose a cero at the cockpit of the AC-130u gunship, immolating the piloting crew to ashes, as well as destroying the entire front of the gunship.

The charred, engine-less, cockpit-less, remains of the aerial vehicle came crashing to the ground, where it crashed into the side of a sky-scraper, and brought down the entire building. Aizen was pretty sure that an impressive amount of arrancar and shinigami were crushed under the rubble.

Aizen, Gin, and Tousen looked at the Meta as it reverted to its seemingly passive and aloof personality. The Meta wasn't inactive at all, contrary to what they had believed. It was every bit as active and perceptive as it had been when it was slaughtering the arrancar at Las Noches in droves. It was every bit as eager and bloodthirsty as well.

It was simply waiting to be unleashed.

If Aizen wasn't unsure as to whether or not he and his entourage would be able to destroy everything and everyone in the city below him, at this exact moment, he would've happily obliged. Until then, he was content to wait for them to thin each other out, before he struck.

xxXxx

Author's Note: Contrary to popular belief, every single augment isn't some unstoppable juggernaut.

Specialized groups of augments (Heavy suits, Shock troopers, Commandos) are able to fight on level with the likes of shinigami captains and Espada level arrancar because they are specifically designed to fight those particular enemies in varying ways, plus they usually have superior numbers. Commandos deal with them by hitting them when they aren't looking, and then having the actual force behind their blows to make it hurt. The shock troopers hit as hard as they can initially, before tearing you down in hit and run tactics. Heavy suits hit you at range with something guaranteed to kill, or overwhelm you with numbers and powerful attacks.

Normal power armored augments don't have any of those skills or technology to work with. They're more or less given the load out of a normal spec-ops soldier and told to adapt to whatever they fight. The only reason named augments like Veltro, Javier, and Wesker are so effective at dealing with high level arrancar is because they excel past all expectations to do it. The rest of the augments are more or less on level with low level arrancar and skilled S-class monsters (by skilled, I mean trained fighters. Not those who senselessly bull rush through a fight.).

Since the PWCD doesn't have any actual frontline soldiers, due to their job description before the attack on Japan, they had to take their largest field of soldiers, and use them as frontline troops. Since spec-ops were, by far, the largest field in the PWCD armed forces, they became the backbone of what is now the PWCD army. Now that there isn't the element of surprise on their side in every fight, you see how they tend to fair in straight up fighting.


	24. So we meet again

Author's Note: Well the battle of Karakura is now in full swing. Everyone is either invested in the battle or on their way to it. With everyone fighting their hardest, and Aizen planning on dicking all of them in the end, this can only end badly for all the parties involved… or could it?

Oh yeah! I've neglected to do so this entire story, so no time like the present.

I do not own Rosario Vampire or Bleach. If I did, you wouldn't see me on fanfiction, for I'd be pissed off whenever I read a story that deviates from the story I wrote in ANY way …. On second thought I'm going to say that I DO own them both just to see what happens. Ok I'm kidding! I really don't own either.

…Or do I?

xxXxx

**So we meet again**

December 25th, Japan, Karakura city

Commando teams, Alpha, Beta, Omega, Theta, and Zi were all milling about the city, supporting the steadily deteriorating shinigami forces in Karakura where they were weakest. After infiltrating, they made their presence known by making entire 'squads' of arrancar disappear. Battles seemingly in favor of the more powerful and numerous arrancar, over the shinigami were turned in surprise attacks that rarely lasted longer than a minute to 30 seconds. They weren't pursuing any actual objectives. They weren't really sabotaging anyone. They weren't out to assassinate any particular arrancar, like the Espada for instance. They weren't even there to report secrets or enemy positions. Arrancar, being as unconventional as an army possibly could be, such information would be practically useless. The commandos were there, in Karakura, for one reason and one reason only. Disruption.

While the commando squads were causing silent and efficient havoc in the midst of the raging battle between shinigami and arrancar, the main force was moving in.

In what could be considered the largest rapid re-deployment in the history of modern warfare, the entirety of the PWCD's armed forces managed to pull back from their various engagements with the youkai of Japan. In a couple of hours, they had all redirected to this one city, which was now the deciding battle for the fate of Soul Society and possibly the real world. The augments had little desire to fight anymore. They were depraved of sleep, exhausted from fighting, and ultimately burned out, but they were all the more willing to end the immediate fighting with one final push.

By now, the arrancar were slowly but surely focusing more of their attention on the PWCD's forces rather than the remaining forces of the Gotei 13. By logic, the humans were more numerous, causing far more casualties, and proving to be fairly even with them in an open fight.

Or at least most of them.

xxXxx

Ulquiorra stared down Ichigo with cold calculation.

The foolish substitute shinigami was on one knee before him, clothes ragged and torn, breathing heavily from exertion.

As the two stared, Ichigo stood up, with his sword ready. It was all too clear they were going for a round 2, and he didn't want to be caught off guard.

That being said, Ichigo summoned his hollow mask. Ulquiorra watched the increase in power and realized his situation. He would be _slightly _underpowered to deal with Ichigo using his hollow mask and Bankai at the same time. As such, he adjusted with a power increase of his own.

"Enclose, Murcielago."

Ulquiorra let himself be engulfed in power, as his sword melded with the rest of his body. The sky rained a green liquid that could be felt across the entire city of Karakura. There was a pause in the fighting as it spontaneously started raining upon the multiple combatants. During this time, many people died to being distracted and giving their enemy a huge opening. Ulquiorra came to that conclusion, but decided that if anyone died due to such a weak and easily ignorable distraction, then they deserved it.

_Clink clang clang._

A tubular object rolled between the two powerful warriors.

Both Ichigo and Ulquiorra's eyes widened as they recognized the object. Ichigo had seen it countless times in video games and movies. Ulquiorra had experienced it first hand before. Both immediately shielded their eyes. The object was a deceptively simple weapon used in warfare to disorient and more easily ambush enemies. Due to the effects it had on its targets, it was affectionately called the 'flashbang'.

The object exploded.

Both warriors being sensible enough to cover their eyes, they only felt half the intended effects. They could see, but their hearing ability was gone for about a few seconds.

With his enemy experiencing bodily difficulties, Veltro made his debut.

The hooded augment came into close range of the Espada, seemingly out of thin air. The arrancar's eyes widened just before one of them was stabbed straight through by a hidden wrist blade. Acting on reflex, Ulquiorra sonido'd backward, nursing the eye that now had hole in it.

For Ulquiorra, pain was pointless. With his high speed regeneration, it was pointless to linger over the feeling of pain for any reason. It also meant that he could soldier through wounds that would debilitate even the most determined of warriors. He could already feel the hole in his eyeball closing up, steadily but slowly. He estimated that he'd be able to see with that eye again, in about a minute or so.

Ulquiorra turned his good eye on the attacker, looking upon he who dared interrupt their fight.

"Damn. I was hoping to kill you quickly." A seemingly synthesized voice stated.

Ichigo's eyes widened and Ulquiorra's eyes narrowed. Ichigo recognized the voice as a distortion from a power armor helmet, meaning this black, hooded figure was an augment. Ulquiorra looked at this audacious human, and finally recognized him.

"Hey get out of here! He's too dangerous for you to fight!" Ichigo cried out to the human. The soldier turned back, amused at the concern being shown.

"Really? He must've been having an off day then, the last time I had a go at him." The augment stated. Ichigo's eyes widened. Human augments were capable of fighting on par with the Espada? The number 4 Espada at that?

Ulquiorra created a green reiatsu spear in his hand right. This was the human he had fought before, when he didn't know that human super soldiers even existed. That fight had gone unfavorably, and made him question his own effectiveness at fighting certain enemies.

"You're the cowardly human I fought before." The resurrected Espada stated, with no emotion.

"You're the bastard that escaped my blade." The augment coolly replied, his helmet speakers removing any emotion that may have colored his voice.

Ichigo got entirely fed up at being ignored.

The hollowfied, substitute shinigami shunpo'd to Ulquiorra's face and cleaved his sword down in an overhead strike. The Espada blocked with his spear, not even blinking as he stared with his reptile-like eyes. The weapon contact caused a small shockwave that blasted dust and air in every direction. As the two weapons grinded, the two warriors stared at each other.

"You humans are starting to become interesting, if not oddly diverse in your methods of fighting." Ulquiorra stated, before pushing Ichigo off. Veltro was intrigued by that statement, but simply assumed that the arrancar viewed shinigami as evolved humans.

"You say that as if you yourself weren't once human."

Ulquiorra glanced over his shoulder. Veltro stood behind Ulquiorra, holding an M8 kondra in his hands. The Espada didn't recognize it as anything more than a larger and likely more powerful version of the handgun Veltro used in their first fight. The human didn't have the power of sonido or shunpo, so Ulquiorra was curious how the human had gotten there without his immediate notice. This was unacceptable, as the Espada prided himself on nothing being able to slip past his notice.

"I was _once _human. That was a long time ago." Ulquiorra turned and charged a cero in his hand, black energy pooling over his finger tip. "Cero Oscorus." As the black beam let loose, the super human darted from his vision. The entire block behind him, and everything in it was annihilated under the concussive power of the Espada's cero. Nothing remained but I giant crater.

"Impressive. We'd need a small tactical nuke to cause _that _much damage to anything." Ulquiorra turned and looked at the super human, who was standing next to a now startled Ichigo. The shinigami had obviously not expected the human to appear next to him like that.

"What is your name _super-_human?"

"Veltro Sojay. Spec ops. Infiltration and assassination specialist." The augment realized that there'd be no immediate way to kill the Espada due to the information he had compounded about them. So he figured he may as well indulge their tendencies to converse during combat.

"Ulquiorra. 4th Espada. Today, it seems as if I will be fighting you both." Ichigo growled in indignation, saying that he wouldn't need help to defeat him.

The teenager charged the evolved hollow with reckless abandon. Veltro, for his part, smiled and re-engaged his active camoflauge. If this shinigami boy wished to hack away at his enemy, far be it from him to stop him. True to his specialty, he'd be content to take pot shots where they presented themselves.

Ulquiorra kicked Ichigo square in the jaw, smashing off a portion of his hollow mask, and sending the human airborne for a brief moment. As Ulquiorra watched the human fly back he became aware of an unnatural glint in his peripheral vision.

_**BANG!**_

A rail rifle round smashed into the Espada's chest, surprising him as it actually glanced his hierro and left a deep gash on his chest. The Espada took a surprised step back at the attack.

_**BANG! BANG! BANG!**_

Three more shots impacted him in almost the exact same spot. These rounds, hitting the area that was already weakened from the previous bullet, actually penetrated _through_ his steel skin and into the soft tissue beneath. The Espada clutched his chest with his free hand as blood ran from the wound. His healing powers forced the bullets out and had already begun mending the flesh.

Tracking the trajectory, Ulquiorra looked in the direction the bullets came from, but only saw more human infrastructure. It was with irritation that the Espada realized that Veltro literally had a near endless supply of hiding places for him to go to. Without the ability to sense him, Ulquiorra would have to randomly destroy entire sections of the city and hope he happens to hit him. Even then, the only way he'd know if he succeeded is if he never gets attacked by that human again. Even then, Veltro could've just retreated to rest or get help.

Ulquiorra was broken out of his musings when he blocked an aggressive swing from Kurosaki, using his reiatsu spear.

"Your fight is with me!" Ichigo growled. Uluqiorra grinded his reiatsu spear against the hollowfied shinigami's sword without breaking eye contact.

"My fight is with the both of you."

"Getsuga Tensho!"

Ulquiorra used his reiatsu reserves to shield himself from the powerful blast. He intern responded by pointing his finger at Ichigo, forming another Cero oscorus. Ichigo's eyes widened as he saw the powerful black energy build up on the Espada's fingertip.

_**BANG!**_

Ulquiorra flinched as his Index finger was blown clean off, causing the building cero to fade away. Even as he felt his bleeding finger stump start to regenerate, he was actively looking for Veltro now. This human was taking pot shots at him. It may not make much a difference now, but if Veltro makes another shot like that, he could give Ichigo a huge opening to kill him. Power or not, having greater reiatsu doesn't prevent a weaker opponents from killing you, just makes it a lot harder for them to get that chance on their own.

Ulquiorra noticed a quickly fading vapor trail leading to a heat wave that was out of place.

The 4th Espads hurled his spear at the area, and quickly summoned another to block Ichigo once again. When an explosion occurred, and the building collapsed behind him, Ulquiorra ran calculations for how likely that was to kill the irritating pest that was Veltro.

_**BANG!**_

This bullet hit Ulquiorra in the arm that was warding off ichigo, making him falter in defending from the substitute shinigami. Ichigo begrudgingly took advantage of his opening, and made a powerful slash across Ulquiorra's chest. Another cut opened on the Espada's chest, spraying blood outward.

_**BANG! BANG!**_

To rounds slammed into the side of the Espada's head. The bullets failed to penetrate but succeeded in forcing the Espada's head to the side. Ichigo made an even more powerful slash to the Epsada's chest. This time he cut much deeper than before.

Ulquiorra zeroed in on the vapor trails and sonido'd in Veltro's face.

The super soldier ducked a swing at his head, and dived to the side when the Espada swung his spear down on him. The area he had just occupied all but exploded on contact with the spear. Veltro compared the Espada's weapon to a missile that doubled as a blunt force weapon. If it made contact, he was dead. Doing what was the obvious thing to do; Veltro slammed a new clip into his M8 kondra and took aim at the Espada, who was very irritated by now. Before he could continue his attack on Veltro, Ichigo entered the picture.

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

The Espada shielded himself with his own power from the attack, which ruined the entire square block. A quick scan showed that Veltro had disappeared again.

Ulquiorra sighed.

He was beginning to hate humans.

xxXxx

Karakura city, downtown

Yylfordt was thoroughly thrown off balance.

The fraccion figured that his increase in power would help him. In a ways it did. He was far more resilient to thunder hammer strikes than before. The problem was that he was now three times larger than before and therefore a larger target.

Assault terminators came at him from all sides. Now that he was just as big, if not bigger than the heavy power armored suits, he was being struck by hammers much more frequently. He would block one or two hammer strikes with his arms or horns, only to receive three or four more hammers to the sides or his open back. He tried to sonido backward to get distance for a cero. When he opened his mouth, a terminator popped in right in front of him, and slammed their hammer into his wide open mouth.

He was certain that his jaw broke in more than a couple places from that impact.

He also noted with despair that his movements were getting progressively more sluggish. He was getting hammered (literally) and had no way of stopping it except to retreat. His warrior pride refused to however. He would not run in the face of battle. If this was his fate, to die at the hands of humans, purely to their numbers, then so be it.

With that thought in his head, he casted away all sense of defense. He ran forward and tackled the nearest terminator to the ground. The augment he tackled feebly pounded his fists into the released arrancar's skull, losing grip of his thunder hammer from the sudden attack. The arrancar chocked back a howl of pain as he felt a pair of thunder hammers slam into his lower back, likely slipping a spinal disk. Yylfordt slammed his fists into the terminator below him, feeling the reinforced armor dent and give under his fists.

He locked out the pain as more terminators began hammering into his open body from behind, in favor of beating the augment below him to a pulp.

With the sheer concussive force of the arrancar's punches, the heavy armored suit finally gave in. The augment died as his own suit was flattened into him by the arrancar's punches. For all the speed, strength, and reflexes an augment had, their bodies were every bit as vulnerable as a normal human's was. Yylfordt sonido'd away when the terminator he pinned stop moving. The fraccion struggled to stand up as his injured back didn't want to align.

_POP! POP! _

2 terminators popped into his face. Both swung hard and jawed the arrancar with underhand swings. A tooth flew from his mouth as the fraccion staggered backward. Yylfordt had killed 3 of the 12 terminators, and was determined to kill a few more before he inevitably fell.

_POP!_

As the fraccion ran forward a terminator appeared beside him, his hammer swinging low. Yylfordt tumbled to the ground as the terminator took his legs out with a well-aimed hammer swing. The fraccion attempted to rise back up, but the terminator's boot stomped into his upper back. The terminator raised his hammer high, and swung downward. Yylfordt's attempt to get back up was halted when a thunder hammer made contact with the top of his head, putting the fraccion's face back into the dirt.

_POP! POP! POP! _

3 more terminators appeared around the fallen fraccion and raised their hammers.

Yylfordt released his reiatsu at full force and yelled. He bucked the human on top of him off, but the other 3 terminators were already swinging down. Yylfordt smashed back into the ground, the hollow mask shattering at the top of his head, where the hammers all landed. The fraccion's head was now clearly visible through the hole the hammers had made. The terminator that Yylfordt had bucked off, stomped back on the fraccion's leg before bringing his hammer down on the arrancar's lower back. The arrancar cried out as his already injured back was put through more suffering.

POP! POP! POP! POP! POP!

Yylfordt was pinned to the ground as 5 more terminators appeared all around him, jamming their hammers into his legs or arms to disable him. The fraccion looked up in anger and fear as the terminator in front of him hefted his hammer like an executioner's axe. Yylfordt cursed, yelled, and fired weakened balas out of his hands, but nothing could free him from beneath the hammers of the assault terminators.

The assault terminator in front raised his hammer high, savoring his enemies struggles.

"**This is for our fallen squad mates you killed, bastard**."

With that statement, the hammer fell.

Yylfordt was extinguished from existence.

xxXxx

Karakura city

Grimmjow frowned,

He felt Yylfordt Granz getting wiped from existence. He had been killed in battle, but the lack of any powerful reiastu signatures in that direction made Grimmjow wander if he had been defeated by a bunch of weaker shinigami, or been killed by a human. Either way, he didn't particularly care, only that he was dead and therefore, no longer of use.

What concerned Grimmjow now was the force of flying humans coming straight for him and his remaining arrancar soldiers.

Edorad, his last surviving fraccion, looked at Grimmjow with a grim expression. Grimmjow looked back with a scowl on his face. Grimmjow recognized these particular brand of human super soldiers. Ulquiorra had shown memories of about 8 or 9 of these humans attacking and stalemating with a force of powerful shinigami that included 2 captains.

As Grimmjow looked up, about 50 of such humans were closing in on them and fast.

At their forefront was a flying human with a glowing hammer and the most numerous white lines on his armor out of all 50 of the other flying humans. That was the one who took on a shinigami captain in single combat.

Grimmjow may be a combat enthusiast but even he questioned their chances at winning with only Edorad, 57 low level arrancar, and a handful of hollows. He suddenly regretted his decision to send away Yylfordt and 20 low level arrancar to deal with those reiatsu signatures he felt. When they were all killed, including Yylfordt, he cursed and realized he'd be on his own here. Grimmjow, tired of all this planning and tactics BS, did the one thing he always loved doing.

"Fuck it. I'm the 6th espada! I'll kill all you humans by myself!" He yelled into the air, drawing his sword.

Yuri was proud to be leading his shock troopers into an, honest to God, war zone. Glory would be achieved for him and his men today. As his shock troopers scanned the city for a good point to strike, he spotted a large group of arrancar that was scarily close to a force of spec ops augments with Bunker suit support. If those arrancar attacked, then that entire group would be wiped out.

They were the perfect target from the shock trooper's administrations.

Yuri informed all the squadron leaders of his force and had them follow his lead. As the jet packing augments moved forward, they steadily came lower and lower in elevation. To many on the ground, it looked as if a force of murderous darts were shooting toward the ground, as all that could be made out from a distance were black pointed shapes moving in a straight line.

Even as Yuri and his men closed in, he felt himself only becoming more impatient to get to the fighting.

He smiled as he watched the arrancar they were attacking look up to the sky in shock. His smile turned into a feral grin when he saw an odd, blue haired arrancar come streaking straight toward him, at a much slower speed. Yuri hefted his hammer, readying himself for another one on one battle. This was his favorite part of being a shock trooper captain. The part where he watched his shock troopers crash into their enemies.

His shock troopers finally broke formation and came streaking down like angry meteors. Weapons sounded as the shock troopers peppered their enemies with bullets before closing the distance. The arrancar fired off rushed ceros as the soldiers came in for the kill. A handful of men were blasted out the sky by the hollow's ranged powers, but that only fueled the intensity of the shock trooper's charge. Many augments preemptively drew out their cleavers and knives.

As the shock troopers crashed into the arrancar, stomping them into the ground, tackling them at over a hundred of miles an hour, or simply ramming them with heavy momentum, a furious battle cry tore through the ranks of the airborne super soldiers.

Yuri roared loudest as he smashed his hammer into the charging arrancar's sword.

"DEATH FROM ABOVE!"

xxXxx

Author's note: Well I wrapped up one fight scene, and opened up two more. At times, I forget that there actually has to be a story going on here, and not senseless fighting at every moment. Guess that's something to work on in the future.

Anyway, thanks for your support of this story. I can't help but feel special to know this story gets the attention it does. I'm open to criticisms and any problems you may have. Know that I won't take any of this for granted and try to improve on my later stories, now that I have some experience with writing large stories like this. Have a nice day!

Oh and if you want to see bleach characters 'fight' a chaos daemon, I invite you to read "The Slaughter of Karakura". As a bit of forewarning, you'd have to be privy to warhammer 40k to understand a lot of it.


	25. Air Supremacy

Author's note: Dear readers, thanks to a reader (Whitecat2011) that informed me of real life super soldier programs, I decided to take an interest and Google some of the stuff that even I myself thought I was exaggerating to the point of wanking.

The link is called (www).lifehack (.org) article,technology,facr-or-fiction-5-sci-fi-body-hacks-that-are-more-plausible-than-you-think (dot html)

(Replace every (,) with a (/) It's kind of sad I have to fool fanfiction into letting me post a full link like this. I'm tempted to go on strike about it.)

This link shows that there is a professor today, designing medical technology that allows a human being to run up to 45 miles per hour and run 100 meters in 5 seconds flat (an Olympic gold medalist sprinter is in the 10-12 second range). There's an exo-suit called 'hardiman' for people, that allows someone to lift 250 pounds and feel like they're only lifting 10. The U.S. military is currently funding the design for a nano-suit (Yes, Crysis fans. Your dreams are coming true) There are skin-suits used in the Olympics that correspond to the wearer's movements and lock together or stiffen when the wearer falls (to absorb the impact). There are countless examples of bionics in modern media. A track runner lost his feet, got foot bionics, and then won a major race (he was disqualified later for having an unfair advantage).

The reader himself said there was a Nazi made drug that allowed people to walk 55 miles while carrying 20 kilogram backpacks before finally giving in to exhaustion.

I willfully admit that the whole brain augmentation part is pure myth, but the body augmentations, along with all of the non-reiatsu based weapons and technology are feasibly possible, if they don't already exist in some form. Here's a wikipedia link about power armor designs in the making and already existing ones ready to be produced.

/Powered_exoskeleton

Now just imagine if something existed that would actually warrant any _real _attention to these fields. Right now everyone is more focused on designing the best rifle, unmanned war machine, best aerial vehicle, or best nuclear bomb defense system. If you came to any 1st world countries military with offers of a power armor that can protect the wearer from a tank round, they'd ask 'why not just spend that money on building an anti-tank bomb? Or planes to deliver bombs? It's not like there's anything that exists that we couldn't fight by just blowing it to hell and back'.

Enter monsters and hollows.

Suddenly the demand for making soldiers that can hold their own against such creatures is higher. Which means more people will be out looking for ways to achieve that result by means of already fairly established fields (like super soldier serums and powered exo-skeletons). If more people are trying to one up each other in the field of super soldiers, than more breakthroughs are made.

The PWCD has been pouring resources into those fields since the early 1900's, (along with the rest of humanity). End results? Read to find out!

xxXxx

**Air Supremacy**

December 25th, Japan, Karakura city

Aizen was disappointed in his arrancar forces.

To be fair, the Espada weren't so much as being overpowered as much as being defeated by superior tactics. The shinigami captains, as well as the majority of the shinigami forces had united in the center of the city and were making a tight perimeter. Any form of attack was usually pushed away by the shinigami.

It wouldn't have been that troublesome for the arrancar to simply overwhelm them, had they not had to focus attacking the shinigami while warding off the PWCD's armored super humans and multiple aerial vehicles. Since the Espada had no desire to cooperate with each other's armies, they were unable to form up into a proper defense, or at least work out a strategy on fighting the PWCD and Shinigami both at once. Not to mention, the groups of super humans from earlier were still running amuck, and disappearing before they could be found and destroyed.

However, if his arrancar were determined to put self-pride over common sense than they deserved the fate they would receive. He decided that if they couldn't reform to deal with the obvious threat that would undo them, than they would not be worthy of his new world.

With this thought in mind, Aizen watched the fighting between the arrancar, PWCD super soldiers, and shinigami for a little longer.

xxXxx

"DEATH FROM ABOVE!"

Yuri slammed his hammer into Grimmjow, who parried with his own sword. The Espada flinched when he got a zap from the thunder hammer blow. Before Grimmjow could respond, Yuri booted the Espada in the face and pushed off. Grimmjow shook off the surprise kick and looked at his opponent, who was rapidly flying away in the opposite direction.

"You coward!" Grimmjow sonido'd directly in front of the shock trooper captain.

Yuri smirked. The augment didn't seem surprised or worried that the Espada had entered his flight path. On the contrary, he anticipated it. Grimmjow's eyes widened when his opponent didn't slow down. He brought his sword up to defend from the inevitable attack.

Yuri, instead of predictably swinging his hammer again, drop kicked his feet against the Espada's sword on the flat end, pushing with his legs and using his jet pack to increase his momentum. Grimmjow was forced to brace his sword with his hand from the tip so he didn't risk dropping it. The 6th Espada was pushed back into the side of a tall building, Yuri pushing into him with his thick impact absorbing legs. Yuri followed up by swinging his hammer at Grimmjow's unprotected head. With his sword pinned under the shock trooper's feet, the Espada couldn't block.

_BZZZZZT!_

An explosion of reiatsu and electricity tore through the side of the building. Grimmjow went flying into an indoor parking lot, before smashing into the front of a red Lamborghini and subsequently crushing the hood of the car. Yuri followed after the Espada, intent on not letting the arrancar escape his sight.

The shock trooper captain paused after seeing what Grimmjow fell on. Yuri wasn't a person who fantasized about cars. He'd enjoy butchering monsters and spirits inside the confines of a sturdy suit of power armor far more than he'd enjoy riding a simple car. That still didn't mean he would mind owning one, however.

Grimmjow got up, infuriated at being tricked as he had. Looking down, he stared at the expensive luxury car that was still somewhat salvageable. Without a second though, the Espada jabbed his hand through the hood and lifted the entire car off the ground. He then threw it at Yuri.

The shock trooper captain tucked and rolled directly beneath the airborne car, watching as it flew out the hole they created in their fighting. When he heard a loud crash, he frowned. Turning around, he quickly blocked a downward swing from Grimmjow's sword, his hammer shooting out a burst of reiatsu and electricity to counter the force Grimmjow put behind his swing. Remembering that he was more diverse than simply using his hammer, Yuri slipped a knife from its shoulder sheath and stabbed it down into Grimmjow's hollow hole.

"AAAH!"

The Espada lost focus long enough for Yuri to rear back and clobber Grimmjow in the face with his hammer. Being slightly more prepared, Grimmjow skidded backward into a parked classic thunderbird. Once again, Yuri's eyes lingered on the vehicle. Without thinking, Grimmjow hurled the car at Yuri. The shock trooper dove to the side and went into a roll when he hit the ground. He looked over and frowned when he saw the Thunderbird fly out the same hole as the Lamborghini. It deepened when he heard what sounded like the thunderbird landing directly on top of the Lamborghini.

"Would you stop throwing cars! Those last two you threw were worth more than your life!"

Grimmjow paused. This human was getting irritated whenever he threw these things at him? The Espada smirked before his eyes looked for the most fancy and complex looking car he could find. He spotted a black and blue Bugatti that was parked on a spot that said 'reserved'. Yuri followed his gaze, and saw the Espada was looking at a multi-million dollar sports car, the car that held a world record for being the most expensive car in existence.

"You wouldn't _dare_."

Grimmjow normally didn't care about anything outside a fight, but he _did _enjoy pissing people off. With that, he sonido'd directly in front of the sports car. He swore that he saw the inanimate object flinch back at his presence. He briefly admired its sleekness before shoving his hand through the hood. The Espada turned around to lift and throw it. When his face turned around, he saw a thunder hammer flying through the air and directly at him like a Javelin.

The hammer flew true and hit the Espada square in the face. The sports car was spared any further mutilation from Grimmjow as he went sailing backward into an elevator door. Yuri flew after him with his jet pack, snatching his hammer from the ground as he passed.

Grimmjow got up, no longer amused. As Yuri charged towards him, he charged back.

The two met in a shower of sparks, reiatsu, and electricity. Every swing Grimmjow made was parried. Every Hammer blow Yuri made was blocked. Grimmjow would occasionally throw a punch or kick, to which Yuri would easily dodge or re-direct. Grimmjow sonido'd backward and fired a cero at the shock trooper. Yuri responded by turning and smashing an adjacent wall with his hammer, before hurling himself through. The augment was quick on his feet and stood up.

Grimmjow sonido'd into his face and cleaved his sword downward. Yuri side stepped and side kicked upward, striking Grimmjow in the front of his neck. The Espada stepped backward in surprise, clutching his burning throat. Glaring, he shot forward and shoulder rammed Yuri. The shock trooper saw his rush and quickly placed his hammer in between himself and Grimmjow. The Espada gritted his teeth and fought through the electrocution he was treated to. Grimmjow pushed into the human, pouring reiatsu into his feet as he drove. Yuri pushed hard in the opposite direction by cutting on his Jet pack, and firmly planting his feet. Even with the engine of his jet pack pushing back, Grimmjow was still grinding forward, step by step.

Thinking fast, Yuri banged head of his hammer into the floor below him. Grimmjow was taken by surprise and fell down the hole. Yuri fell down with him, his jet pack still going. Yuri turned so that he was pushing down into Grimmjow as they fell down a floor. Combining the jet pack's speed with both the augment's and arrancar's weight and the two crashed through two more floors, Yuri using Grimmjow to protect himself from the impact. They stopped when they landed on a large oil rig.

Recognizing what they just fell on, Yuri was quick to roll off. Grimmjow sonido'd into Yuri's face and swung his sword. Yuri ducked under the swing. He responded by swinging his hammer in a similar fashion, to which Grimmjow blocked with his sword

Thinking quickly, Yuri tackled Grimmjow and cut on his jet-pack at the same time. The force of both was enough for Yuri to forcefully push the Espada into the side of the oil rig. Before Grimmjow could punch the human off, Yuri beat him to it, by punching the Espada in the ear. The 6th Espada flinched at the assault on his eardrums. Yuri took the time to prime a grenade in his right hand. When Grimmjow swung at him again, he dunked and punched his right hand into the rig's oil supply and released the grenade.

Yuri did a quick knee to Grimmjow's crotch, making the Espada bowl over in pain. With that, Yuri flew in the opposite direction of the oil tanker until he was outside the building. He came to a stop and turned to observe the ensuing light show. Yuri calmly ignored the fact that his shock troopers were locked in a brutal melee with the arrancar, just behind him, and shook off the oil covering his right arm.

Grimmjow looked up and growled at Yuri for his cheap shot. Just when he got up to pursue the shock trooper captain, he felt that something was off.

The oil rig exploded outward, engulfing the 6th Espada in the explosion.

xxXxx

The shock troopers themselves were fighting with a ferocity and tenacity that only an infuriated human could have. Over half the arrancar's original numbers were killed in the initial assault. A multi-hundred pound suit of armor landing on top of enemies at up to 100 miles per hour was a deadly weapon in of itself. The shock troopers would crash into the arrancar hard enough displace the concrete and earth they landed on. Having steel like skin didn't protect from most of the effects of bludgeoning. Many of the low level arrancar found their chests being caved in, or suffering from concussions when the shock troopers crashed into them. With so many of the arrancar's number devastated in the initial attack, they were outnumbered almost 2 to 1 in favor of the augments.

In typical shock trooper fashion, they went straight into the melee.

Low-level arrancar were noticeably stronger than augments due to their ability to self-enhance with reiatsu. Augments, on the other hand, were faster and more vicious due to training, and even limited mental conditioning. Shock troopers were outright feral and brutal in any kind of combat. They may have been tired from their previous battles, but with their adrenaline pumping they were prepared to fight for another _three_ days if that's what it took.

As the evolved hollows fought the shock troopers, the difference in skill started to show. For every 3 low-level arrancar slain, only 1 shock trooper died in the attempt. That was if it was a numerically even fight. The arrancar being heavily outnumbered by the shock troopers turned that estimate from 3 to 1, to 6 to 1.

A shock trooper found his cleaver locked to a male arrancar's axe shaped zanpokutou. To break the stalemate, he forced both their weapons to the side and gave the arrancar his hardest head-butt. The evolved hollow staggered backward both in pain and surprise at the tactic. The trooper knew that simply banging his sword ineffectually against the target would be pointless, due to that steel skin of theirs. So instead, he opted to go for the traditional method of dealing with arrancar. Stab them through any hole you can.

The trooper was not alone, as one of his allied shock troopers joined in on the attack. The arrancar took a powerful side kick to the chest, knocking it backward into a wall. When he tried to rush forward at the offending shock trooper, one of his allies shoulder charged from the side, and blindsided the arrancar. The creature stumbled back up to his feet to see both shock troopers coming at him at the same time. The evolved hollow swung his axe at one of the humans, horizontally. The augment in response, rushed forward and grabbed the arrancar's wrist and shoulder mid swing, before yanking forward in time with arrancar's own momentum.

The augment's strength combined with the arrancar's own force sent him stumbling forward straight into the other shock trooper.

This one caught the arrancar's shoulder, and twisted him around so he was facing the wall. When the arrancar finally regained his wits, he tried to turn around and swing but was cut short. The augment stomped into the back of his knee, making the arrancar fall to one knee to catch himself. The shock trooper wrapped a gauntleted hand under the evolved hollow's chin and forcefully tilted it back. The augment's free hand drew a handgun from his side and shoved the barrel into the arrancar's eye socket.

_**Bang!**_

The arrancar went limp.

Before either shock troopers could find more enemies, Edorad sonido'd in their mist. He cleaved downward on the shock trooper who had just killed another arrancar. The augment dove to the right to avoid the attack, but was left open for his enemy's follow up.

"Bala."

The shock trooper was sent rocketing back, knocking over enemies and allies alike. The shock trooper from earlier saw this and glared at his enemy's back. He shot forward and cut on his jet pack. The multi-hundred pound suit shoulder charged into Edorad's legs, hitting directly behind his kneecaps.

The fraccion's legs buckled and he fell to his knees. The shock trooper quickly got back up, and ripped out a knife from his shoulder sheath. Trying his hand at repeating what his ally had done, he tilted the fraccion's head back up, so that he could drive his knife into its eye socket.

Edorad suddenly lurched forward, flipping the shock trooper over his shoulders when the augment tried to keep his grip. Edorad punched down on the shock trooper, but the superhuman quickly barrel-rolled to the side. Before the shock trooper could get far, the fraccion fired another bala at point blank.

The focused energy punch impacted against the shock trooper while he was still on the ground, crushing the augment.

Edorad had successfully dealt with two shock troopers in seconds. He was beginning to think all the hype these soldiers got was woefully undeserved.

Before he could consider that possibility any longer, something smashed into the fraccion while he was still on his knees. He was knocked completely on his back, with spider web cracks surrounding him. Looking up, he realized why he was like this.

On top of the fraccion was a shock trooper with 9 white lines. 3 across each eye, and 3 on one shoulder pad. The augment had its boots planted firmly on his abs and shoulder. Edorad looked harder and saw that the augment was holding a long tubular weapon with a green box at the bottom. It was being aimed directly in his face.

"Don't blink."

The augment fired a light machine gun at point blank into the fraccion's face. Edorad was dead after the first shot passed through his eyeball and into his brain. The shock trooper didn't stop there though. He watched in satisfaction as the now dead fraccion's steel skin weakened more and more. Flesh started peeling away under the on slot of bullets, until the fraccion's face was an unrecognizable, bloody mess.

Finally the augment stopped firing, satisfied that revenge had been achieved.

Just then, a totaled red Lamborghini sports car flew out the side of the building he was next to. The shock trooper looked up and watched as the expensive vehicle landed on some random normal hollow with an insect's appearence. Before he could mull any farther over the unusual occurrence, a green thunderbird fell directly on top of the Lamborghini. Both vehicles exploded into flaming expensive pieces. The now dead hollow's leg twitched.

"What the hell are they _doing_ up there?" The shock trooper said to himself.

He ducked when a cero nearly took his head off. He returned fire with his SAW light machine gun. Soon he forgot all about the occurrence.

xxXxx

The Meta took a step forward.

"Not yet. We need to let them whittle each other down first." Aizen calmly stated.

The Meta snarled in irritation.

Aizen narrowed his eyes at this. He understood that this creature wasn't simply breed in a life of hardships that only the strongest prevailed in, like his arrancar. The Meta was created, both physically and mentally, for battle and nothing else. It was only natural that it felt distaste at being held back on a leash until formally told to attack. The fact that bothered him was that his hybrid had actually voiced its discontent, even passively. It was possibly nothing, but Aizen decided to keep a close eye on the Meta's actions from now on.

Little did he know, the Meta was watching him as well.

The hybrid would occasionally fiddle with its weapon, a melding of a zanpokutou and a M-8 kondra. To the others, it was simply busying itself to stave off boredom. The Meta was actually catching the light from the sun to get a reflection of Aizen every so often, but it made sure to repeatedly do so uncaringly and casually. This was so that Aizen didn't notice, not that there was much chance to begin with. The Meta didn't have any actual eyes to begin with, just a skull with empty eye sockets. Aizen wouldn't be able to tell if the hybrid was looking at a reflection of him, or past the weapon entirely and at the battlefield before him. The shinigami had the power to make illusions, but not the ability to read minds. Coupled with the Meta's ability to completely suppress its own reiatsu to undetectable levels and it was entirely unreadable to anything.

And Aizen was a fool to think he could control something with such a twisted and confused thought process like the Meta. Two minds warred over control, neither winning, neither losing. The only things the hollow mind and human mind could agree on was who they disliked (though for entirely different reasons) and only occasionally how best to deal with them. This was one of those moments.

_You…. Took…. Everything…._

Aizen turned to look at the Meta again, getting an odd feeling from it. The hybrid was as inactive as ever, and seemingly not even paying any attention to him. Aizen was suspicious of others outside of Tosen and Gin by nature, but this was the only time that he truly had no grounds to justify it with anything, other than a bad vibe. Giving a mental shrug, he ignored it. He did, however, make a conscious effort to keep the Meta in his Peripheral at all times.

xxXxx

Author's note: In red vs blue, the Meta was always unpredictable. Sure he worked with others when necessary, but he never actually maintained any loyalty to anyone. Even before he went insane to the AI problem, he was still a bit…insane. Though to be fair, plenty of my own augments are quite a bit insane as well. In addition, this Meta has a bit of a "We are legion" feel to it. It's two minds stuck in one body, with opposing mindsets. The only thing the mind of a super soldier and a man eating hollow would agree on is that both enjoy killing to a certain degree (though one does it for a practical reason, while the other for a lifestyle reason), and that mixing their talents makes the act of killing enemies far easier. Coupling in a few other factors that I won't yet explain, and the Meta has enough enemies for both to take satisfaction in killing. In fact, it's built up an entire mental 'shit list' to go by.

Point is, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and acts like a duck, don't trust it to stand near you with a loaded rail-rifle.

By the way, I got the Meta's ability to convert its reiastu powers entirely into physical strength from Ichigo, who did the same in his fight against Aizen.


	26. We own the night

Author's note: As much fun as it is writing about how supernatural abilities clash against advanced technology, the battle of Karakura is starting to run long with no ending in sight. There needs to be some sort of resolution to the endless chaos. With that, let us proceed to the next chapter.

xxXxx

**We own the night**

December 25th, Japan, Karakura city

The city of Karakura was in ruins.

Across the outskirts were countless scattered bodies. Unmoving augments were pinned to the ground with Zanpakuto sticking out their chest, arrancar with knife handles sticking out their eye sockets, and hacked apart bodies of shinigami were plentiful. Various charred husks of helicopters and other aircraft littered the city, surrounded by displaced earth and more bodies of dead soldiers. Countless buildings were reduced to rubble. What was once a great city was now a mass grave.

The scene that gave the most testament to this, was a Bunker suit hunched over a pile of rubble, whose operator was obviously dead. Surrounding the heavy suit was 5 dead arrancar, 3 augments, and a hollow with a pole jutting out its forehead. The entire area around the pile of bodies was covered in craters and more

The remaining forces of the PWCD, shinigami, and arrancar alike, had under some unspoken agreement, agreed to have a break in the fighting. When night pulled in, the shinigami and arrancar slowly disengaged and settled into whatever areas or buildings they had secured. The arrancar were licking their wounds and resting where they thought they could afford it.

The shinigami intended to do the same, but in the dead of night, PWCD commandos convinced the spirits to relocate from the center of the city into the outskirts, which the PWCD had firm control of. The process was slow and many of the remaining shinigami were too exhausted and worn from battle to even think about moving. When the commandos informed them of what the PWCD planned to do now that night time had pulled, in they were suddenly more willing to get up and leave.

Ectoplasmic vision was similar to normal default settings, the main difference being that it allowed one to clearly see ectoplasm, which spirits and hollows were made of. However, what if one had to fight spirits in a setting other than broad day light? It was discovered that for some odd reason, spirits emitted body heat, which made thermal vision and infrared vision viable. Though the situation made a mixture of Ectoplasmic vision and night vision preferential, the augments decided that it was better than nothing.

The arrancar were under the impression that now that the fighting had slowed down, and the majority of their enemies were resting, than they would be safe.

To be fair to those arrancar, they were ignorant to how the PWCD or any properly equipped human military fought. The PWCD armed forces being entirely made up of ex-special forces, the augments became more deadly now than they ever were during broad daylight.

Spec op squads who had suffered major casualties, shock troopers, terminators of all variants, and lastly Bunker suits, all stayed behind to rest or consolidate their positions. Meanwhile, the two remaining Lockheed AC-130 gunships, nearby Apaches, and few bomb equipped jets were on standby for bombing runs.

Across the city, PWCD spec op squads, commando teams, and a few individuals moved through the city, using their active camouflage to stay hidden.

Countless arrancar were murdered in their sleep. For commando's, snapping necks, stabbing out eyes, and cutting off tongues was the preferential way for silently killing arrancar. For spec ops, silenced pistol shots and quiet knifing were the preferred methods.

As predicted however, the arrancar who were still awake began to notice that their fellow arrancar were flickering from existence at a steady pace. Realizing they were being killed in the dead of night, those arrancar hastily woke up their allies and warned of the occurrence.

As the stealth forces of the PWCD got to work, they steadily came upon more and more groups of arrancar that were wide awake and watching out for them. When it was apparent that such groups couldn't be removed silently, the PWCD decided to go loud.

Squad leaders began giving out coordinates of major arrancar positions. If they were going to go loud with their attacks, than they weren't going to be half assed about it.

The world erupted into action as high explosives illuminated the night. Low flying apache gunships opened up on arrancar positions with armor shredding minigun fire and anti-tank missiles. Lockheed AC-130 gunships rained hell down upon the coordinates they received. Low flying jets delivered payloads of bombs, making entire blocks go up in flames.

If the arrancar in Karakura weren't awake before, they definitely were now.

Before the arrancar could organize into a proper response force, the bombing runs stopped. The stealthy PWCD soldiers remained hidden, ceasing to give anymore coordinates or risk more of their air support being shot down. The arrancar realized that the attack had stopped, but were now very attentive. They realized the humans wouldn't stop attacking simply because night time pulled in. In fact, they seemed a lot more liberal in their use of explosives, now that the darkness had set in.

All the power was cut off, leaving the entire city bathed in pitch black darkness. Arrancar, being part shinigami, lost the superb eye-sight of some of the more animalistic of hollows. This meant that in some parts of the city, they literally couldn't see their own hands, much less someone else's weapon. That was the only reason the majority of the fighting had stopped, as the opposing forces had to fire brightly colored cero's and kido just to see each other.

Military hardware had no such limitations.

The stealth adept forces of the PWCD launched a series of commando raids, and called in air strikes. A small group of arrancar could be walking down a dark street, and disappear from existence the next second. Any lone arrancar was picked off with ease. Large groups had bombardments called down on them from attack helicopters, bombers, and gunships. Even full encampments, numbering as large as almost one hundred arrancar, were picked at with hit and run attacks and selective bombardments. The PWCD soldiers even went as far as to start bringing in mortars and javelin missile launchers. They never committed to an attack, always retreating when the enemy got too close or came in too strong for comfort. Try as they might, the arrancar were fighting blind and could only manage firing ceros in the direction of gunshots. That was ineffectual though, as the PWCD soldiers routinely moved to different fire points to avoid being uprooted.

This was how augments were meant to fight. Not from frontline trenches, or in massive charges, but by tearing apart your enemy at their most vulnerable.

The arrancar that managed to survive without being in large groups learned fast, however. They had taken to always being mobile. They sonido'd everywhere they went, and made sure to scrutinize any unusual sound or moving shadow they came across. Those individuals were few and far between. Passing PWCD operatives opted to simply ignore them, rather than open fire and risk giving away their position. They posed no actual threat other than the usual blind cero they may unleash just to make themselves feel safe when they stopped.

One such passing arrancar, or "runners' as the various spec ops teams began identifying them as, led a squad of commandos straight to Grimmjow's residing area.

The arrancar there had been brutally smashed by the shock troopers several hours before night time rolled in. When the darkness settled in the arrancar lost their ability to see as clearly. The shock troopers transitioned from fighting in daylight to pitch black without so much as a pause in the fighting. They seemed to be a lot less accurate at scoring kill shots with their knives, as all the humans could see was a red figure with vague facial features with thermal vision, but that seemed to be their only flaw during the night time. The arrancar and their Espada commander, who smelt like burning oil, were forced to retreat or be destroyed in the pitch black darkness of Karakura.

The commandos were able to make out only about 20 or so arrancar total.

Considering this force was just shy of a hundred before the shock troopers showed up, the commandos were impressed. Pushing those thoughts aside, the squad leader of commando team Alpha called down an air strike from the nearest air support available.

It just so happened that a Lockheed AC-130 gunship was passing through this particular section of the city.

xxXxx

Grimmjow was miffed to say the least.

He had been forced to run away from a fight, and a good one at that. He briefly wondered why the hell it was so dark in the human world. In Huecco Mundo, the moon illuminated the night to easily visible levels. Here in the human world, it was like someone dumped black paint over the sky, with only a few distant stars making any sort of visible light.

That was before areas in Karakura started blowing up in fantastically large explosions. When no reiatsu could be felt from the explosions, it was apparent that the super humans were still fighting, or at least just dropping bombs for intimidation purposes. He admitted that it did annoy him to try to sleep, only to be woken up by the sound of something blowing up a few blocks down.

_**BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!**_

Grimmjow heard the sound of some other human weapon being fired off but didn't care. It wasn't like they were firing at him or anythi-

_BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!_

The Espada immediately jumped to his feet as explosions rocked the building he was in. The roof collapsed upon both him and the remaining arrancar that he had been put in charge of. The weaker evolved hollows began to panic as they heard the loud explosions slam into the building.

_BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!_

The very room they were in was torn apart by violent explosions. With the roof gone, the explosives were landing on everyone's heads. The high explosives punched through hierros and support beams alike. The entire building collapsed upon the group of battered arrancar.

The Lockheed AC-130 gunship was armed with three main weapons. The minigun, the lightest weapon, was for tearing apart infantry. The bofors gun, which had just been used for leveling the house arrancar resided in, was an anti-tank weapon. Finally, was the howitzer, a weapon previously only used as a highly mobile artillery piece. The weapon was designed for making entire platoons of enemy infantry go up in smoke. Mounting it on the side of a gunship only made the artillery weapon even deadlier.

With word of the arrancar's durability spread throughout the ranks, gunships tended to 'double tap' on any targets they were ordered to hit.

The howitzer lined up a shot.

Grimmjow had managed to dig himself out the rubble easily. He shrugged off the shots from the bofors gun, with little more than a bit of scraping. His arrancar underlings on the other hand were annihilated by the mounted anti-tank weapon's volley. As the 6th Espada contemplated what to do next, he heard a loud sound.

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

The remains of the building as well as half of the entire block was consumed in a large explosion.

xxXxx

The arrancar forces were rapidly losing ground.

All their forward positions had been silently killed off, bombed, or been raided. The arrancar were harrowed as they tried to survive the night. They were paranoid of every shadow, and every loud noise that occurred. The arrancar were certain of their abilities in battle, but they weren't fighting a fair battle. They were swinging blind, while the shadows themselves seemed to be picking them off like grapes. For the first time in history, an arrancar could honestly say he was afraid of the dark, and his fellow arrancar wouldn't look down on him for it.

It wasn't uncommon for arrancar to turn up dead, with their eyes and tongues carved out, hanging on a rope from a street light. The arrancar, having never seen such terror tactics put to use before, were horrified upon seeing such barbarity. Every single body had a skull carved into their chest. They began to believe that all augments were feral murderers rather than trained soldiers.

The PWCD gave no such order for terror tactics, however.

Javier had taken to assassinating random arrancar and hanging up their bodies for display. It was meant to be a sign of vengeance specifically from him, which was why he carved his own skull emblem into the arrancar he killed. He didn't consider that the arrancar were unable to differentiate between augments other than their armor designs, but then again, he didn't really care what the creatures thought of him or his allies. So long as they died, he didn't care about their opinion.

The PWCD had called back the spec ops and commando teams from across the city. They wanted their soldiers to get at least _some_ rest before the real fighting started again. The night time raiders fell back. Their air support moved away to nearby PWCD bases in the country, to re-arm and re-fuel. The pilots were tired from flying around all day and half the night, and had to get their rest as well. The night time attacks were over, but they were a success in their purpose.

Not a single arrancar, even the 1st Espada, went to sleep that day. They stayed awake the entire night, despite their bodies demanding rest. They feared they'd be raided or gutted in their sleep if they did otherwise.

For the first time in days, Karakura was truly quiet.

This only made the arrancar more attentive in their search for an enemy that was no longer there.

xxXxx

December 26th, Japan, Karakura city

The early morning sun rose and the PWCD were already on the move.

Yuri and his shock troopers took to the skies once more, well rested and ready for battle. Assault terminators were at the forefront, prepared to smash their way through any opposition. Commando teams deployed deeper into the city, ready take pot shots or silently kill groups of arrancar as they showed. The main force of the PWCD were groups of spec ops squads moving attentively through the destroyed city, their ranks dotted with standard terminators and bunker suits. The PWCD air force was on their way for another day of bombing. Attacks like this usually recommended armored spearheads, but with the arrancar all possessing the power to fire ceros, such an attack would only be a waste of tanks.

The shinigami had stayed behind to rest and recuperate, having been entirely exhausted from the brutal fighting they had to endure.

Without having to worry about the shinigami, the PWCD air force was cleared to fire on any target that emitted large levels of reiatsu, so long as none of their own infantry were nearby. The PWCD's forces crept deeper and deeper into the city, passing by areas that had obviously been bombed or raided last night. The augments began to get more and more suspicious as they had yet to engage any arrancar. It seemed as if the evolved hollows had retreated deeper into the city.

The commando teams confirmed that the arrancar were there, but they weren't moving forward.

The arrancar had organized the remains of their 'armies' into one large force. Of the original force of 1000 arrancar and hollows at their beginning, they sieged Seireitei and lost two Espada, along with 700 of their original number. The Remaining 300 attacked with the intent to destroy the remaining shinigami. Instead they met that, _and _a force of super humans. Counting the remaining Espada and fraccion, there were maybe 50 or so arrancar still alive in Karakura city, either by skill in adaptability or pure luck.

There were easily thousands of augments in Japan at this time. The entirety of the fighting from yesterday was only the first 500 or so augments that managed to get here in time. The entirety of the PWCD's fighting force was well over 4,000 augmented super soldiers, 5,000 before the arrancar invaded.

The arrancar were outnumbered practically outnumbered 100 to 1, outgunned in every meaning of the term, and for all intent and purposes, outmatched. They refused to go down without a fight however.

Every arrancar went into their resurrecciones.

xxXxx

"Well the arrancar have run their course." Aizen stated. "It's time we intervene."

Tosen and Gin readied themselves. The Meta hissed and growled at the same time. As the group of 4 flew toward the ground, a feeling of dread picked at everyone's mind. Not just the spirits, but the super humans as well. It was as if something bad was going to happen and everyone knew it.

The Meta sped past Aizen, scanning the ground for the nearest target it could find.

Below them, approximately 57 arrancar were about to close in with the numerically superior army of the PWCD super soldiers. Things would get chaotic very soon.

The Meta let its human memories wash over it as it identified the most immediate threats.

Bunker suits. Sonic weapons. Slower than bullets, but more deadly and debilitating. Primary threats. Rail guns. More powerful versions of his own weapon. Not _too _immediate a threat but something to look out for. Commandos. Same weapons as his own, strong enough deal physical damage, fast enough to keep up with him. Secondary threats. Espada. Powerful attacks. Slower reaction and movement speed. Primary threats.

The Meta's hollow side picked up shinigami reiatsu approaching. They must've sensed Aizen as well as the rest of them approaching. The hybrid opted to ignore them until they appeared.

The Meta had established its engagement tactics and moved in for the kill.

xxXxx

Author's note: Finally we reach the true climax. Aizen and his cronies showed up, the Meta is being murderous and a tad bipolar in its desires, the arrancar in Karakura are about done for, the PWCD is about to get blindsided, and the shinigami don't want to be left out when shit hits the fan.

I have to thank my readers for being this supportive the entire way through the story. Without support, this whole ride could've easily crashed and burned. For those of you who want to see this concept of humans fighting monsters continue, don't fret. I have a whole mess of budding ideas in my head for where to take this, after the fighting is resolved. My only question is which idea I should pursue first. Trying to write multiple fics at once just screws me up.


	27. Unleashed

Author's note: I have a question. I always see authors "put stories up for adoption". Has anyone ever actually adopted another person's story before? I ask because I've watched multiple great author's write a story halfway through, then for whatever reason just give it up for anyone else to take, if they don't just stamp the dreaded "discontinued" on the summary. I have yet to see someone adopt a story, and I imagine those that are adopted don't do very much good, what with the author limited by what the previous author already wrote.

Anyway this is what you red vs blue fans have been waiting for. The Meta finally makes his major debut to the arrancar, PWCD, and shinigami.

xxXxx

**Unleashed**

December 26th, Japan, Karakura city

The Meta crashed to the ground, displacing all the earth in a 10 foot radius.

The resurrected arrancar and assault terminators halted their movements to look at this new intruder. The PWCD super soldiers were confused at how to respond to this creature. Its armor gave the IFF of a Beta team commando. The creature's appearance however had all the tell-tale signs of being a hollow. They were confused whether or not to attack it when any attempts at COM communication didn't work.

The arrancar were just as confused. This being had both PWCD armor and the reiatsu levels of a fraccion or privaron espada. They didn't know whether to label this as some sort of super human weapon or an ally that only justarrived to assist them.

The Meta looked at the terminators, its eye sockets seemingly beaming down into their souls.

_You… Abandoned… Me…_

The Meta moved faster than most could blink. In one fluid motion, the Meta stabbed the bladed side of its zanpakuto through the helmet of the nearest terminator. To everyone watching, this was taken as the Meta being on the arrancar's side. With that, the exo-skeletoned heavy suits began engaging the arrancar.

_POP!_

_POP! POP!_

3 terminators appeared on all sides of the Meta.

Augments in terminator suits lost the deadly speed they were trademarked with, in exchange for being strong enough to go toe to toe with the more powerful of enemies in their lonesome. They did retain they're super human perception however; making attempts out pace or overwhelm them usually fall flat.

Terminators had never dealt with a hybrid of augments and arrancar before.

The first terminator to raise his hammer received a powerful cero to the chest, blowing the augment back. The other two could only watch in shock as the Meta sliced at their joints and weak points in their armor with speed that only augments could have. They were able to keep up with the movements but their slow armor made them powerless to stop it. The two suits fell to the ground, blood seeping out various weak points in their armor.

One of the arrancar, a giant Minotaur, was staggering backward as assault terminators hammered into his legs. The fraccion pooled reiatsu under its feet and got airborne, away from the terminators. Unperturbed, the terminators began teleporting up to his altitude and hammering him once before gravity took its toll, than teleporting back up when their packs charged for another teleportation. The Minotaur flailed away at the terminators, trying to get them away like a man would an angry swarm of bees.

The Meta stared at the Fraccion.

_You… serve… him…_

The Meta sonido'd in the air, face to face with Tesra. The fraccion of the 5th Espada blinked. What could this creature possibly be doi-

_SQUELCH!_

The Meta shoved his hand through Tesra's forehead and into his brain. The Meta fired a weak cero from his hand, causing neon blue energy to roast the inside of the fraccion's head. Blue energy from the Meta's cero blasted out all off Tesra's orifices, signifying that everything inside the arrancar's head was reduced to ashes. The Meta retracted its hand and began to go wild.

The clashing terminators and arrancar were forced to turn their attention away from each other and toward this mystery creature. It wasn't fighting for any particular side; it was indiscriminately killing everyone it saw. Terminators were hacked and slashed apart at their weak points, or failing that, simply blasted with ceros or impaled. Arrancar were gutted like fish, not being quick enough to engage in sword play with such a fast and devastating creature.

Grimmjow sprinted toward the Meta, batting aside a terminator that had the nerve to not be looking at him. The Meta glanced over its shoulder, noting that the espada was already released, but returned its attention to dismantling a terminator squad of all their offensive abilities.

When the 6th Espada got in striking range, he swung at the Meta's unprotected back.

Then it did the impossible. Without even looking, the hybrid side stepped, twisted its torso, and leaned back. Grimmjow missed entirely, instead hitting making contact with a terminator's hammer swing. The terminator was grinded backward, while Grimmjow staggered backward, electrocuted and dazed. Before the Espada could blink, he was punched twice in the stomach, jaw-checked, and struck with a powerful cero at point blank. The Espada went sailing back, crashing into a pair of unprepared terminators. All of them fell in one giant heep.

The Meta acutely heard the sound of gunfire.

The Meta's head whipped around and saw a full scale rail gun round streaking toward its head. Looking past the magnetically accelerated bullet, the Meta spotted a bunker suit, surrounded by a squad of PWCD spec ops. The hybrid easily dunked under the round and came forward at high speed. The bunker suit was unable to show the wearers emotions, but the suit was obviously stunned that something had dodged a rail gun shot at under 50 meters distance. Heavy armor or not however, the bunker suit operator was still an augment and every bit as capable at tracking this high speed creature. The bunker suit raised his rail gun for another shot.

The Meta changed tactics.

The bunker suit fired, but the Meta sonido'd the second the bunker suit pulled the trigger, leaving an afterimage. The hyper penetration round split the after image in half. The Meta reappeared to the bunker suits right. The other PWCD soldiers trained there small arms weapons on it, but the creature's commando armor deflected the combined fire of the various assault rifles with ease. The Bunker suit's armor made it not as easy to move, but the suit hastily brought its rail gun to bear once again. The hybrid sonido'd just as the next round was fired off, again hitting nothing but the Meta's afterimage. The Meta reappeared directly in front of the bunker suit, only a few feet away. The Bunker suit stepped back and placed its rail gun in-between itself and rapidly moving creature before it. The Meta sonido'd just as the bunker suit fired at point blank.

The surrounding augments immediately turned to face the Meta, who was standing on a car next to them, and opened up with their rifles. The bullets pinged of the commando armor, while the Meta's hand shielded it from bullets impacting its bare skull. One of the bunker suit's 6 different helmet cameras caught sight of the Meta standing directly to the right of it. The heavy suit hastily turned to fire again, but the Meta was faster.

An arrancar could fire a bala as fast as it took to charge and punch. Most arrancar could only manage 2 of such balas a second due to their punching speed. Augments were many times faster than their arrancar counterparts, but far weaker in strength. The hybrid could meld both these abilities to deadly use. The Meta's augmented body allowed it to fire as many as 12 balas a second.

Temporarily releasing its main weapon, the Meta's arms fired in a blurred speed, like pumping pistons. Balas rapid fired into the Bunker suit, smashing it into the solid concrete and crushing the sturdy armor, and by extension, the operator under its relentless blows. Then the Meta turned its attention to the augments. Realizing their firearms wouldn't work, they reverted to their usual anti-arrancar tactics. The rushed with knifes in hand.

The Meta dunked under a side kick, and swatted away multiple attempts to stab at his armor joints. An augment came from behind, but the hybrid was never caught unaware. The Meta focused reiatsu into its leg and stomped hard into the ground. A small crater was made, throwing off the augments' footing and causing two to fall. The Meta snatched up its zanpakuto/rail rifle meld and hacked apart two still stumbling augments. The two on the ground quickly tried to get up. One was stopped by a reiatsu fueled axe kick to the neck, killing the man instantly. The other augment, rolled to the side before it could be impaled into the ground by the Meta's weapon. The last spec op jumped up and rolled backward to avoid being sliced in half. The Meta made two more swings that the augment managed to evade, before punching straight forward. The augment jumped back, but his eyes widened when he saw a bala fire out the Meta's hand. The augment slammed into the side of a building with a sickening crunch.

"Cascada."

The Meta was absolutely invigorated to be fighting augments. They were fast enough to keep up with his movements and actually make him struggle to try and counter their attacks. Arrancar were strong but slow. Every movement was a major telegraph of what they were doing or planned to do. It should come as no surprise that the Meta easily sonido'd out of the way of a giant random tsunami.

The PWCD ground forces weren't so lucky.

Their armor was sealed, but didn't have any actual oxygen tanks. The Spec ops soldiers were forced to hastily swim out and latch onto buildings for support, their arms easily overpowering the weight of their armor and crashing waves. The heavy suits weren't so lucky. The nearby terminators and bunker suits could only flail helplessly as the water threw them around.

Harribel knew she missed her intended target but was at least satisfied to see she had completely disrupted the PWCD's ground offensive with that attack. Her eyes scanned for the creature that had appeared, searching for its reiatsu. She was tempted to believe she had crushed it under her water, since its reiatsu signature was completely gone, but that would be foolish. She had seen it move within seconds of the water hitting. It must have the ability to hide its reiatsu. If that was true though, than where had it gone?

Her question was answered when she saw the creature ambush Ulquiorra. The 4th espada was run through from behind by the mysterious white armored creature. Before she could blink, the Meta yanked its blade out and swung through the 4th espada again. This time the hybrid cut a straight line through Ulquiorra's back, seemingly deep enough the slice his spine in half. Before Ulquiorra could respond, the Meta had sonido'd again. The creature obviously assumed that the 4th espada would die to his wounds and left him be.

She knew he'd be alright. Ulquiorra had regenerative powers. Those wounds were indeed lethal to almost any arrancar, but Ulquiorra was already healing.

The Meta reappeared in the middle of a brawl between large human hammer wielders and an angry Grimmjow. It indiscriminately attacked both Grimmjow and the terminators, not caring about any sides or allies. This creature was a battlefield juggernaut. The humans were too weak to fight this creature while the arrancar were too slow to keep up. Unfortunately, the arrancar and humans were fighting each other just as hard as they were the Meta. No organization or proper response could be made to anything. Everyone was content to attack the nearest enemy until either side relented.

Harribel quickly rallied here fraccion to her and told them to stay in close proximity.

This was quickly becoming a bloodbath.

xxXxx

Aizen had briefly considered personally entering the fight, but decided against it.

The Meta was doing a pretty good job on its own.

Instead, he, Tosen, and Gin made a beeline for the approaching shinigami. With the Meta keeping both the arrancar and the humans far more occupied than they had been before, the only real worry was human air support. However, with so many fellow human soldiers just beneath them, they wouldn't risk the chance of friendly fire. Before that, they'd have to realize that he wasn't a friendly shinigami.

In other words, Aizen and his entourage could move with impunity, as the PWCD were aiding the shinigami and couldn't tell apart the loyalist from the traitors.

Aizen was quite giddy. As of now, all his plans and hard work would come to fruitation. He'd finally ascend to the highest level of power and no one could stop him. He will dethrone the soul king and sit as ruler of all three worlds. His only obstacle is the shinigami, and with Captain Commander Yamamoto dead, not a single one of them is powerful enough to give him a serious challenge. He's pretty sure in his capabilities to defeat all of them in his lonesome. The PWCD however, he'd have to be creative to remove them. They'd be a bit more challenging by way of how unusually they fight. He may have to create a few more Meta's to destroy all the augments the humans possess.

The trio of traitor shinigami halted in midair as they felt the approach of the entire Gotei 13.

In an instance the three were surrounded. On all sides stood hundreds of angered shinigami that had lost many friends and loved ones to Aizen's army of evolved hollows. The captains and lieutenants were closest to the 3, by logic of them being the most powerful, and as such most well suited to defeating Aizen.

The master of deception intended to test that theory.

xxXxx

The PWCD was pulling back.

They were idiotic to send forces in mass to fight enemies with powerful area of effect attacks. The Resurrected Espada wreaked havoc on the attacking PWCD forces with attacks such as the "cero oscurous", or their own personal destructive attacks. The assault terminators performed the best, felling 12 of the 50 remaining arrancar with orchestrated attacks. The bunker suits are what saved the attack from being a complete massacre, throwing the more aggressive arrancar back with sonic weapons and high penetration rail rounds, while the PWCD spec ops disengaged and returned back to friendly lines. The Espada weren't the main interest however.

There was a creature that ruthlessly attacked both the PWCD's forces and the Espada alike.

It had an all-white version of commando armor, with a broken open face plate. Its head wasn't a hollow mask but an actual skull. Its weapon was a M8 kondra fused to a zanpakuto, giving the appearance of a giant pizza cutter with a rifle where the handle should be.

This creature was both a blessing and a curse as it started to attack the arrancar the more that PWCD forces kept clear of it. It was recorded to be keeping pace with augments, something that for a long time people thought that only werewolves in the full moon could do. It personally killed 4 squads of spec ops, 1 squad of assault terminators, and 2 bunker suits before the PWCD had completely disengaged.

This fight was becoming far more costly than they liked.

This creature only appeared once, in less than an hour before the PWCD and already it was listed as an immediate threat to all of humanity, far more so than the remaining arrancar could hope to be. It was viewed as convenient that such a high level threat was now fighting the remaining arrancar's forces and holding its ground at the moment. The PWCD was already organizing a specialized task force to intervene and destroy the threats immediately. They realized that no sizable army would achieve the results they needed without horrific losses, and as a black ops organization, they were nothing if not adaptable to the given situation.

That is, if the threat survived this little surprise the PWCD had in store for it.

xxXxx

Karakura city

A single jet flew toward the area where the Meta was fighting. The arrancar were hurling attack after attack, but the Meta proved too mobile to be hit, while the Meta would occasionally find an opening to return fire with a cero or a few rail rifle shots.

"Coordinates locked."

"Firing solution confirmed. Command, requesting permission to fire W72 tactical nuclear warhead."

"Permission granted. Wipe them off the planet."

"Hawk 1, Box 2."

"Missile away."

A single missile flew out from the jet, before the jet itself banked upward. The missile had a built in auto correcting system, so that it wouldn't veer off or hit anything it wasn't supposed to. Now that it had been fired, it would do the rest of the work on its own.

xxXxx

Author's note: I feel I should explain why the PWCD suddenly went from badass, undefeatable super power, to a bunch of cannon fodder troops with a few above average soldiers here and there.

The PWCD is a black ops organization. All their soldiers train for fights where they sneak up on enemies, run into them in tight spaces, or use tactics to destroy numerically superior forces either by themselves or with teams. Up till now, every fight has been augments sneaking up on someone, pounding them hard with explosives before the actual troops show up, or simply shooting them because they're vulnerable to bullets. The heavy suits and shock troopers are the only exceptions because the later was designed to fight enemies that for whatever reason can't just be shot and the sooner were to ambush and then overpower enemies.

They were never supposed to form up and be an actual military. At best, they occasionally scrounge a few squads together to take down a big enemy organization like fairy tale. The previous chapter showed them getting more into their element by using superior tech, firepower, and the night itself to kill off the arrancar, rather than have to fight head on brawls like they've been doing this whole time. The fact that 300 arrancar managed to grind against an augment army that was nearly 2 times larger, had shinigami aid, and air support should tell you how inept the PWCD is at trying to fight a ground war. Even when the other 4,000 or so augments showed up, progress against the arrancar was still going woefully slow.

I'm also letting you guys know that I'm going on vacation Monday through Wednesday next week to Panama city, so next chapter will be delayed for longer than the usual 2 or 3 days. I'll get to work on the next chapter tomorrow so that I might be able to get it up Thursday night, or failing that Friday morning/afternoon.

I won't be dead or on haitus next week, just away at a beach I've come to hate for a variety of reasons that I'm going to list. I'm confident I'll find a new reason with this next trip.

I saw a shark poke up about 50 feet away while I was swimming. I couldn't get out fast enough.

I was jet skiing with my dad, and saw a brown thing pop out the water and dive back in. I don't know if it was a seal or something but I didn't stay to find out.

I got locked out my own room once, and had to sit there for a solid 30 minutes.

A biker convention came through one time and I saw a lot of big woman riding on the back of motorcycles in high skirts and booty shorts. The memories still haunt me.


	28. Shock and Awe

Author's note: Well sorry for the ultra-long wait. Panama City was actually better than I thought it'd be… It still sucked but at least I don't have a new reason to hate it…. Unless you'd count a firecracker going of just outside your window at 10:00 at night a reason, but I guess that's what I get for being in the top floor, in the room closest to a window….Not to mention it was July the 3rd. Damn Panamanians celebrating holidays a whole day earlier than everyone else….

Oh and by the way, for Fourth of July, f*ck Walmart's cheap fireworks. Drive out to Alabama, where nobody cares about such menial things as "public safety". You can buy some of the most fun, dazzling, slightly hazardous, non-eco-friendly, and almost lethal fireworks America has to offer. If you're not American, than buy some and fire it outside during nighttime anyway! I hardly think anyone will get mad at you for entertaining the neighbors with a backyard lightshow! If it's illegal in your country, I should probably shut up before I get you arrested.

xxXxx

**Shock and Awe**

December 26th, Japan, Karakura city

The W72 tactical nuclear device is a bomb designed to only destroy roughly 2 square blocks in a nuclear explosion. It was initially designed to be fired from an RPG launcher, but the idea was scrapped when it was realized that even at such a small yield, firing such a weapon down a street had a high chance of killing the weapons owner with the sheer blast zone radius or radiation effects. The weapon was decommissioned by the U.S. in the mid to late 1900's by the United States once the cold war finally lost traction, but found new use in the PWCD arsenal as an air to surface missile. For withheld reasons, the PWCD altered design was a lot 'cleaner' of an explosion than its U.S. counterpart, which would leave a blast zone irradiated for years. The new PWCD modified weapon would only leave any given area irradiated for a few weeks at best.

The Meta, as well as the arrancar it was fighting took notice of the projectile.

The Meta quickly struck Grimmjow across the face, then turned and fired a powerful cero at the ground behind him. The resulting explosion obscured everyone's sight long enough for the hybrid to make a hasty retreat. The Espada and fraccion remaining took keen notice of what a jet missile could do during yesterday's fighting and the nighttime raids. It couldn't be outran, it could'nt be avoided by sheer speed, and it killed its target on contact. However, making it blow up preemptively caused a violent explosion, but not nearly enough to be considered a serious threat to most arrancar unless it goes off within a few feet of them.

With that thought in mind, Ulquiorra pointed his index finger at the speeding missile. His alignment didn't need to be perfect, so long as he was aiming in the missile's general direction; chances are that he'd at least glance it. A single glance was all that he required.

"Cero Oscurous."

A massive beam of black and green energy erupted from the tip of his finger. The beam streaked upward in the direction of the airborne missile. The arrancar watched, knowing that if the missile wasn't shot down or stopped by something, at least one of them would die. The reiatsu based energy beam engulfed the streaking missile just as it descended below building level. A direct hit. Everyone expected the missile to simply explode and that would be the end of it.

Unfortunately for them, that wasn't an average missile.

A huge shockwave expanded outward, blowing out every window in that section of town. The buildings nearby the explosion were blasted apart into rubble by the concussive force of the blast alone. This was the effect of a detonated nuclear device just _before_ the actual explosion kicked in. The ensuing explosion atomized every object in the immediate area before expanding.

The dramatic explosion gave the arrancar precious seconds to try and outrun the blast, pool their reiatsu into protecting themselves from the blast, or, in the case of the smarter arrancar, do both. Despite their best attempts, the nuclear explosion overtook and engulfed all the combatants in the area.

xxXxx

Aizen paused in his battle as he felt the passing shockwave.

He immediately noticed it wasn't reiatsu based, in which he automatically associated it to the humans. He heard an almost ear shattering explosion, and turned around to see the cause, as did most of the shinigami in the area. Aizen had seen many explosions of many sizes and ranges, but he could honestly say that he had never seen an explosion so violent that it caused a mushroom cloud.

Many jaws dropped in surprise and shock at what they were seeing. In front of them, for all to see, was an expanding mushroom shaped explosion. There was no trace of reiatsu in it, but the sheer ferocity of the explosive could be felt by all present, simply by the fact that it caused such a massive shockwave that it blew out every nearby window. They didn't realize it, but they had just witnessed a nuclear explosion, the smallest nuclear explosion ever created in human history at that.

If there was anything humanity was good at, it was shock and awe.

Aizen was forcefully interrupted from his staring when he had to block a downward sword stroke. Before he could counterattack, he was forced to block and parry three more sword swings. When he tried to make a counter swing, he was booted backward from a kick to the gut. The rogue shinigami slid to a stop, his face showing that he was only taken a little off guard. Aizen looked up and locked eyes with a rather interesting combatant.

Retsu Unohana.

Before he could speak, he was forced to block a powerful swing that would have loped him in two different pieces had he not blocked. Aizen gave a small frown while Unohana was still smiling her usual good mirth smile. It was obvious that she had an undercurrent of loathing for him, but her face didn't show it. Even while she was hacking away at him with her sword, she still gave him that motherly smile.

Aizen wasn't easily freaked out, but Captain Unohana was feared by many in Soul Society for good reason.

Aizen locked blades with the woman, immediately realizing she'd be tougher than the other captains to defeat. He sensed for the arrancar in that direction, but was disappointed to see many of the arrancar were still alive, if barely. The ferocity of that explosion had definitely taken the remaining arrancar out of this war for good. He was sure that this was the final battle and that from their weak energy, he was sure that they had been placed just short of death's door, if they weren't about to die already.

He was also interested when he couldn't sense the Meta.

There were arrancar far weaker than the hybrid in sheer power that had survived the explosion. The Meta couldn't have been felled by something that failed to kill an even weaker enemy, especially with its superior reaction time and quick thinking factored into the equation. The creature must've gone into hiding once again, or something similar. Where it could've gone, now that the augments retreated and the arrancar were knocked out the fight, he didn't know.

xxXxx

A square 2 blocks of Karakura town was obliterated.

Not a single building still stood in the entire area. Rubble and shattered glass was everywhere. Even the ground itself was cracked and ruptured everywhere you could see. Smoke and fairly large pockets of radiation blanketed the area so much that a person couldn't see farther than 20 feet ahead of them.

Grimmjow clawed his way out of a collapsed building that had fallen on top of him. He was coughing blood and suffering from more than a few 3rd degree burns. The 6th espada couldn't bring himself to stand, no matter how much he tried. He settled for rolling on his back and looking up to the sky. All he saw was a beaming sun that was partially obscured by smoke. He took deep breaths, but constantly choked due to the profuse amounts of smoke and low level radiation filling his lungs.

Harribel and her fraccion lay in a pile of rubble, weakly moving around to try and get any kind of feeling they could back into their bodies. Stark was laid out across a car with a broken windshield, lilynette lazily hanging off his fingers in her pistol form. His clothes were singed and in some sections completely burned off. Stark wasn't dead but was on the verge of suffocating to the heavy amounts of smoke and radiation in the air.

Ulquiorra had taken the brunt of the punishment. He was the closest to the explosion and the missile had all but gone off directly in front of him. The 4th espada's healing factor was all that saved him from certain death. Ulquiorra was currently in a crater, missing an arm and mortally wounded all over his body from shrapnel and burns. Despite all this, he barely clung onto consciousness.

Szayel was less fortunate than the others, having already been sufficiently battered by PWCD assault terminators and then some more by the Meta beforehand. Lacking Grimmjow's sturdiness, the mad doctor arrancar was killed in the explosion. His fraccion, lacking the powerful hierros and sturdiness that the more powerful arrancar possessed, ultimately died in the detonation as well.

Of the 1000 arrancar that had embarked on the campaign to conquer Soul Society and the real world under Aizen's command, only 7 arrancar remained. All of them were in critical condition and in no way capable of fighting any more.

The eerie quietness of the entire setting was disrupted by the sound heavy footsteps. Multiple footsteps.

Those that had managed to maintain consciousness turned their heads to a sight they dreaded. PWCD Commandos emerged from screen of smoke that surrounded the area. Every Commando squad the PWCD possessed was dispatched to the blast zone. Each of the elite augments had their arrancar specialized rifles trained on whichever arrancar they happened to lay their eyes on first. The augments moved forward with deliberate pacing and professionalism. The arrancar glared in response, being powerless to fight the humans in their current state.

Grimmjow saw the approaching augments and vehemently struggled to get back on his feet.

His struggling drew the attention of one commando, who began to walk in his direction while aiming a M8 kondra directly at his head. Grimmjow had just managed to prop himself up on his shoulder when a boot came down and pressed him back into the ground. The espada hissed in pain as his battered body hit the ground. Grimmjow glared up at the expressionless visor of a commando helmet, sitting behind the iron sight of a M8 kondra. The Commando looked at the pathetic sight for a moment before lowering his weapon away from his weakened enemy. He didn't remove his boot however.

"Theta 1, these hostiles have been effectively disarmed. Does command want prisoners?" The commando looked to his sergeant for information on how to proceed next. The commando in question was standing over the broken form of Ulquiorra, along with 2 other commandos.

"Unknown Theta 3. They assumed that if they survived the tactical nuke, they'd still be in fighting condition. Commander Wesker, what are your orders for them?"

All the sergeants turned to look at a figure that was only just emerging from the smoke. This augment was wearing standard power armor, inferior to the commando armor in every way except the cost to produce it. Despite this, the commandos had an air of respect to the man, and for that reason, the arrancar themselves turned to look at him. Curiously enough, this augment had on a trench coat over the armor itself that was open at the front. The chest portion of the armor that was visible had an assortment of straps across it, implying the trench coat was there to conceal weapons and ammunition, regardless of the fact they were already in a war zone.

The arrancar got a bad feeling from this augment the second he spoke.

"Incarcerate these arrancar. If any of them make an attempt to resist or appear to be building up for an attack, kill them then and there."

"Affirmative commander." The commandos droned.

The commando who was pinning Grimmjow to the ground with his boot, moved his boot beneath the espada, before rolling him onto his back. Grimmjow, for his part, growled and cursed at the commando. The Elite augment was unperturbed as he placed his scaled down rail rifle on his back, and began the process of binding and securing the espada. The other commandos followed suit as they began turning the once powerful enemies into prisoners of war, or more commonly known as POW's.

Wesker stood by all the while, looking like he was trying to maintain a stern and powerful appearance.

In all actuality, he was really trying to spot the one enemy that wasn't accounted for with the UAV scans. Of the arrancar that had been identified in the initial attack, all of them were confirmed to be killed in action, or here among those struck by the tactical nuke, dead or alive. All but one.

The arrancar in commando armor.

The creature wasn't able to be located in the entire blast zone, and local reiatsu radars were unable to discern its position. This troubled Wesker, but he had faith that should it reappear, he and his commandos would be able to take it. Just then, a female arrancar with deer horns tried to launch a weak and sloppy punch at one of the commandos, Alpha 3 if he wasn't mistaken. The commando of Alpha team responded by lazily blocking the punch with his hand before rifle butting the woman in the stomach. The fact that the arrancar crumpled to the ground so easily from the blow let him realize just how badly these creatures were messed up from the nuclear detonation. He was impressed that they survived at all, but only that. When the other 3 arrancar females near her tried to jump in and help, they were lazily knocked over from baby taps by the rest of Alpha team. He almost got the impression that his commandos felt sorry for hitting those arrancar at all. Wesker felt happy to know that at the moment, the arrancar threat was neutralized. If not, it could easily be removed for good in the milliseconds it took to pull a trigger.

They had to put away these arrancar for good.

Wesker called up command and informed them that they had the remaining arrancar incarcerated, most of them being Espada level. When he asked whether or not they wanted him to execute them or take them in, command went with taking them in. They rationalized that since they already had 4 arrancar and a hollow under their pay roll, they may as well try to annex the rest of them. If their attempts at turning the arrancar to their side failed, it would be a rudimentary manner to put those that resist down for good. Wesker acknowledged and requested evac for both his men and their newly acquired POWs.

It was here that his orders got more…interesting.

He was instead informed to give the arrancar prisoners to the augments that would already be on the transport, citing that if the arrancar were in as bad shape as he described then dedicating 19 commandos and a hyper lethal-rated augment to guard them would be a vast waste of resources.

Their new orders were to pursue this unknown arrancar with PWCD issued armor and kill or capture it by any means necessary.

They would have unrestricted access to air support, reinforcements would be on call the second they asked, and UAV's would be present across the entire city to give each commando sergeant a bird's eye-view of the battlefield. Their HUDs were updated with tracking arrows painted on the armor of this arrancar. Information on what they had on this creature was given to Wesker, pertaining to its capabilities and powers. When they ended their statement with "failure is not an option", he realized the seriousness of what was being asked of him.

Interestingly enough, the information given in a report was written by one of the PWCD loyal arrancar who had fought this armored arrancar before. She even had the creature's official name.

"The Meta." He stated.

Wesker liked how easily the name rolled off his tongue. It was far easier than constantly referring to it as "The armored arrancar". With that thought in his head, he ordered that the remaining arrancar be disarmed of any weapons they were currently holding and rounded up into one place. In the 4th espada's case, he had to be dragged over by his wings (which were tattered and filled with holes to the point of disuse). The commandos were quick and efficient in their jobs, although that was likely aided by the fact that the arrancar were quite literally powerless to say or act otherwise, though his men received quite the stink eye while they were doing so. The only arrancar that tried, who resembled a humanoid panther, was easily bullied by Theta 3 into moving how he was demanded to.

Wesker heard an explosion and turned to look at the sky.

In the distance he could make out a lot of black dots and colorful lights, which meant the shinigami were fighting something. Zooming in with his goggles, he realized the shinigami were fighting figures in white robs, which were exact copies of the typical arrancar uniform. He assumed they must've been remnant arrancar being dealt with by the shinigami, but noted that they weren't being overrun or overpowered like how you'd expect in a fight that was a few hundred against 3.

The reiatsu radars had probably already picked it up, but he decided to report it to command anyway. 3 possible arrancar holding their own against the entire remianing force of shinigami was something that command would want to know about immediately. Especially considering the only known arrancar that were capable of doing so were either being held at gunpoint or about to have 5 squads of PWCD commandos on their ass.

xxXxx

The Meta watched the conflict between the shinigami safely from the ground.

With its reiatsu completely conjured into brute force, nothing would be able to use reiatsu detection to find it. The PWCD augments could track it by its armor, but they were still getting their act together after that slaughter of an offensive they launched. For the time being, the Meta was completely off the radar.

But the hybrid didn't plan to keep it that way for long.

The Meta was planning its next actions carefully, knowing the slightest folly could lead to an untimely death, which neither the hollow mind or the human mind wanted. However there were many targets left on its mental hit list that the Meta would assuredly kill before it finally died, and the hybrid would make sure that was precisely what would happen. It couldn't go about it stupidly however. It had to precise in where it struck, and when it struck it would have to strike _hard_.

The obvious choice was the force of nearby commandos about to go after it. Once the Meta realized it was still connected to all the COM lines it still had as a PWCD commando, it made sure to take full advantage of its new found insight. It couldn't care less for what they planned to do with the arrancar, but it paid close attention when it heard that the PWCD were sending commandos, as well as James Albert Wesker to kill or capture it. The choice it wanted to go with was confront the commandos and their commander directly, but the Meta was no fool.

Its speed advantage that it usually enjoyed having would be lost against PWCD augments, and with them being equipped with commando armor, it would still have the strength advantage but not overwhelmingly so. As well, they were all armed with M8 kondra's which could penetrate its armor and hierro in a few shots. Dodging a single high caliber bullet was easy, but dodging multiple from close range and different directions was far past its capabilities entirely. None of this factored in the exact capabilities of what this 'hyper lethal' augment could do. In short, the Meta was sure it could hold its own, but not sure as to whether or not it could win in a pitched battle. The PWCD taught not to get into fights you weren't absolutely sure you could win, and the Meta's human mind was sure to beat this lesson into the bloodthirsty hollow's mind.

With that in its head, the Meta thought about other avenues.

Joining the fight with Aizen seemed viable, but there were plenty of enemies present, and many attacks that would come at him. Many of those attacks had the capability to kill him outright, but the shinigami tended to telegraph their attacks far too easily. The Meta could not only dodge, but use those build ups as openings for its own attacks and surgical strikes. Lacking the hierro of arrancar, killing shinigami in force would be far easier than killing a group of arrancar or PWCD commandos in force. Plus helping Aizen in a fight, regardless of whether or not the help was needed, would allow the Meta to get closer to its creator, as well as his lapdogs; Tousen and Gin.

The hollow and human mind came to an agreement. The Meta looked to the sky before bending its legs. The hybrid pushed off the ground and shot into the air with vengeance, creating a crater below its feet. As it rocketed to the sky, it released its reiatsu full force. The Meta didn't have a 'sealed' form of any sort, finding such concepts as "holding back" idiotic and unnecessary. The Meta came in with the intent to kill in its first attack. There was no point, in its mind, to dragging out a fight any longer than necessary.

Many shinigami were alerted by this sudden surge of non-shinigami oriented spirit energy coming from nowhere. When they turned to look at this sudden threat, the Meta didn't give them a chance to fight back. It sonido'd into their midst, screaming like a bat out of hell.

The Meta was hacking and slashing before most of the shinigami could even blink.

xxXxx

Author's note: I'm back! Happy 5th of July! Last night I shot firecrackers that were illegal in the state of Georgia into the sky for hours with my family! The kind of fireworks that fly 150 feet in the air before blowing up! Me and my cousin then picked one up off the ground while its fuse was lit and pointed it at our uncle. We missed and the thing blew up in the backyard, scaring the shit out of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and whoever else was in the porch at the time. Someone could've been badly burned from a direct hit, but as it was everyone just screamed while we ran into the house. The rest of the night was spent throwing bottle rockets at each other for laughs (one of which burned a hole in my favorite shirt. A t-shirt that said "Running Sucks" followed by a picture of someone tripping during a track race). My brother took a bottle rocket to the chest, but somehow his shirt didn't get burned :(.

Most people would call family members hurling explosives at each other for over an hour, dangerous and stupid. I call it one of the best 4th July celebrations I've ever had, right behind the one where I was in Mississippi with store bought 4th of July smoke screens. The fun I had rolling those into people's rooms, kicking open doors, and yelling out random police quotes….

I was going somewhere with this…..

Ah well, I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Now comes the most annoying part for me, proof reading something that I just wrote for punctuation errors, missed words, sentences missing important predicates and other hiccups Microsoft word can't catch.


	29. Protocols

Author's note: Things are about to get hectic.

Hmm. Not many reviews last chapter. After being gone a whole week, I would've expected more of a reaction than that. Well I guess the only way to get my oh so satisfying reviews back is to recapture everyone's attention. How will I do that? I'm going to do what every fighting anime does.

I'm going to put in a bunch of arbitrary fight scenes and string them together with a weak plot! I call it the Hideki Kamiya method (The guy who made Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, for those out of the loop).

Is it guaranteed to work? Not likely. Hell If I don't try though.

As well, as much fun as I have writing a fic where I poke holes in zeppelin sized egos, I've decided to write a new fic. Or not so much _new,_ as an add-on to my fic that was once destined to be a long forgotten one shot. The story title "Slaughter of Karakura" will soon be re-written into "Skulltaker's Vengeance", "Fury of Khorne", "Reaping of Skulls", or whatever I, or any creative reader, can think of.

The 'plot', is that the Skulltaker of Khorne starts dimension hoping, f*cking up every single place and person he meets along the way. This isn't so much a story as a string of bash fics for every anime universe that has ever bothered me for any reason. Not bothered like Bleach or RV, where a single idea keeps nagging me throughout the entire series. Bothered as in, 'I want to see every person in this story DIE. PAINFULLY." We've all seen an anime that just makes us want to scratch our eyes out and burn the memory from our brain. I figured the best way get over that problem is to imagine one of my favorite fictional characters show up to said anime and cut everything, and everyone, to pieces. They'll all be disconnected one-shots, to help me practice writing for actual legit stories, while venting my frustrations at the same time.

Hell, I'll even add in other people's problem anime stories for the chopping block, depending on how much info they give me about it before hand. Just a little project on the side.

xxXxx

**Protocols**

December 26th, Japan, Karakura City

Shuuhei swung his scythe at the creature, but it was too fast. Alongside him, Ikkaku and Renji were fighting this new arrancar that had suddenly appeared.

Before it could even be identified as an arrancar, it killed 8 members of of squad 10. The creature dodged every kido and ranged attack with contemptuous ease. The creature wasn't focusing on any particular enemy. It simply cut down whichever shinigami happened to be closest at the time and moved on. It wasn't fighting for any specific purpose. It was just indulging its desire to destroy its enemies, who unfortunately for them, happened to be the shinigami.

When Shuuhei hurled one of his scythes at it, the armored arrancar sonido'd out of the way and reappeared directly in front of him. Before the seated shinigami could even blink, the creature drove a fist into his gut. The shinigami was forcibly bent over from the strike to the stomach. The arrancar followed up by wrapping its hand around Shuuhei's throat and throwing him at Ikkaku. Both of the high ranked shinigami went flying at the forced impact.

"Howl, Zabimaru!"

The Meta turned to observe a red headed shinigami come at him with a whip like blade. As the blade shot forward, the Meta nimbly leaned out of the way. The whip blade went straight past it and into a building the Meta was standing behind. As Renji yanked the blade back, The Meta sonido'd directly behind him. The man's eyes bulged out his head as he tried to turn around, but the Meta slashed him deeply across the back with its blade. Blood splattered across the Meta's armor as the shinigami dropped out the sky and toward the ground.

The Meta was deeply disappointed. Many of these enemies were strong. Stronger than itself at full power could ever be. Their flaw, however, was their tendency to telegraph attacks excessively much. It had gotten to the point that the Meta wasn't even taking the fight seriously anymore. It was just idly dodging attacks and hacking apart any fool that decided to get close, _after _having seen it gut the last 9 or so shinigami like fish.

Ikkaku came at the Meta with a pole arm staff, which had an odd bushel of red hair on the end. When the 11th division 3rd seat swung at him, the Meta dispersed the focused spiritual pressure holding it up and then focused it back a few feet beneath its original position. The Meta seemingly just fell a few feet before landing again in midair. It was just enough to avoid being hit by the attack.

Ikkaku growled.

The arrancar could've blocked, dodged, sonido'd, or done anything to counter his attack, but instead it just dropped itself. The creature did that just to insult him, without verbally doing so. The 3rd seat of squad 11 came again. This time the Meta actually blocked his attack with the bladed side of his rifle/zanpakuto meld. The shinigami began furiously hammering at the Meta, which the hybrid itself lazily blocked, purposely leaving a lot of openings to be exploited by anyone who happened to attack it from behind.

Shuuhei shunpo'd directly behind the Meta, while it had its weapon locked against Ikkaku's.

The Meta forced both its' and Ikkaku's blades to the side before giving the shaven shinigami a brutal head-butt. The Shinigami rocketed back in both surprise and pain. Just as Shuuhei slashed down, the Meta initiated a side kick to the flanking shinigami's exposed chest. Shuuhei's attack faltered as he bent over in pain, but the Meta pushed. Following the kick to the gut, the Meta drove its elbow into Shuuhei's exposed back. The shinigami rocketed down toward the city, but the Meta sonido'd directly below the falling shinigami. The Meta drove its fist into the exact same spot it had kicked, just before firing a bala from the hand already rammed in Shuuhei's gut.

The point blank blast shot the shinigami a few feet off the Meta's hand before falling down again. The Meta planned to finish this with a decapitation swing, but was interrupted by the sight of familiar whip blade. The Meta shot upward and bulldozed through the winded shinigami to avoid the attack.

The Meta came up, only to see a pink mist shoot down at him. The arrancar was impressed as it hastily sonido'd out of the way. For once these shinigami had actually harrowed it to dodge, rather than lazily breeze through as it had before.

The hybrid watched as the shinigami that had engaged it formed up. The shaven shinigami with the polearm, the red head with a whip blade, the scythe armed shinigami, and finally a new shinigami that was wearing a white rob. All of them shunpo'd into a loose formation, staring the Meta down warily. The shinigami captain with the pink mist surrounding him spoke.

"You're toying with us. Why? You had multiple chances to kill these shinigami but you stayed your hand in favor of battering them." The captain spoke evenly.

"Yeah what's the big idea!". Ikkaku yelled in anger. He was furious that his enemy wasn't fighting with full force.

The Meta responded to Ikkaku's statement by spotting a random female shinigami fly by in a ninja outfit, leveling its rail rifle at the woman, and quite literally blow her head off in the time frame it took them all to blink. The shinigami were so stunned by the seemingly random act of murder that they almost failed to notice the Meta sonido'd directly behind them. The shinigami all turned around to be engulfed by a powerful cero.

Renji came out worst of them all, having already been badly wounded from a slash across the chest. Byakuya and Ikkaku came out only a little burned. Shuuhei was singed in places and completely winded. The 4 shinigami tried to regroup but the Meta was all over them. The hybrid was striking the shinigami with fast punches and kicks to keep them off balance. No matter how hard they tried, none of the shinigami could move fast enough to actually dodge or block the Meta's attacks. Byakuya adapted by engulfing himself in his own pink mist to avoid being struck. Renji coughed up a fair amount of blood when the Meta gut checked the shinigami 3 times in a row.

The shinigami couldn't deny that they were being beaten badly by this creature. It easily disassembled the 4 of them by striking at near imperceptible speeds. Even the most well-guarded of stances were unable to completely defend from this arrancar's speed. Attacks that were normally easily parried repeatedly found their mark around the shinigami's defenses. Any attack was easily countered. Any defense was easily penetrated. Attempts at surrounding and overwhelming the armored arrancar were easily disrupted, if not completely avoided.

Unlike the rest of their fights, where sufficient power was the answer to defeating any foe, this arrancar proved to be brutally cunning in its tactics. It never dedicated itself deeply into any sword play with any single fighter that it couldn't disengage from within a split second flat. It constantly remained mobile and selective in who it struck next and how it would do it. They had attempted to counter this problem by releasing their full spirit pressure. The Meta felt itself only start just start to feel the effects of crushing spiritual pressure and sonido'd to a safe distance. It then commenced with firing balas at a staggeringly high rate. The shinigami weren't crushed under on slot, only because Byakuya shielded them with his pink mist of blades. When the Meta saw this, it tried punching through the barrier with a cero. When that failed, it fell back to the most obvious answer. Go around the wall.

The Meta sonido'd directly behind the shinigami, rail rifle raised to fire. It acutely noticed the sound of a small jet engine and turned its head.

"DEATH FORM ABOVE!"

Before the Meta realized could react, something slammed into its unprotected side. The hybrid was launched to the side in a blast of reiatsu and electricity. The Meta skidded to a stop a few meters away, using its reiatsu to slow its movement. The side of the Meta's commando armor was badly damaged from the hammer blow. The Meta's arrancar body easily held up from the attack, but the armor suffered. The hybrid glowered as it inspected the damage to its armor and then hissed as it laid its eyes on this new enemy.

Hovering before it was a shock trooper with a thunder hammer. The Meta recognized the troop class, but failed to acknowledge who the individual himself was.

Yuri grinned as he laid eyes on the armored hollow.

Fresh meat.

xxXxx

Aizen felt very superior about himself.

As of now, he was being attacked from all sides by the visoreds, while still fending off Unohana and Zaraki. The sooner had joined in the 'fun' after seeing the intensity that Aizen was being attacked with. Slowly but surely, the traitorous shinigami captain steadily cut down the visoreds, and then the shinigami captains that took their place. Only Unohana and Zaraki managed to endure past their peers in the fighting, Unohana being deceptively skilled for how rarely people ever saw her fight, and Zaraki simply soldiering through the wounds he sustained, which would've inevitably felled any other shinigami in his place long ago.

Aizen frowned as he noticed something happening in his peripheral vision.

All around him, as he fought off the powerful shinigami and visoreds, he was being surrounded. Shock troopers hovered around him, at a safe distance from the attacks being exchanged, but not so far that they couldn't jump in at any given moment. Then more augments came. On the ground, on top of buildings, and across windows, PWCD bunker suits of varying weapon types got into firing positions. Multiple helicopters with anti-tank missiles circled around Aizen at high altitude, the nose mounted miniguns constantly facing his direction. Even higher in the sky, 2 Lockheed AC-130 gunships flew overhead.

Aizen could only make quick glances before dodging or blocking an attack from any angle, but he realized what was happening. He was being surrounded by the humans, and in the way they were doing it, they'd attack simultaneously from all sides the moment these pesky shinigami and visoreds were defeated. They may even fire before then, depending on how much they value their shinigami allies.

Aizen used his reiatsu to harden his skin, just in case.

He wasn't worried about their numbers. He had observed and seen that even the weakest of attacks could kill an augment. All that was required was making an augment keep still long enough to score a direct hit. With this many augments surrounding him, he could simply launch every area of effect kido in the book until only a few stragglers remained. When the augments got in close, they'd be noticeably harder to deal with due to proximity. Even then, he could simply put distance between himself and those augments and return to area of effect attacks. He admitted that maintaining such a battle plan would be tiring, and after a while, irritating but he knew it would work to satisfactory levels.

Before he reached that phase however, he'd have to deal with his current set of enemis.

xxXxx

Japan, Undisclosed location

"For the last time, we need to go!" Neliel screamed.

"And for the last time, you can't!" Chief raised his voice to just a tad lower than hers.

The HSF commander had been arguing with the arrancar woman and her friends for over 30 minutes, inside his office. They had felt the ferocity of the fighting all the way from here, and were eager to go out and help. The President of the PWCD had given the Headquarters Security Force strict orders to NOT let any youkai, spirits, or non-humans of any kind, leave the compound for their own safety.

It was a conflict in interest to put it simply.

The arrancar wanted to go out and fight; even if it meant fighting with those they once called allies. The PWCD on the other hand, firmly wanted their non-human auxiliaries locked away from view. The fact that all PWCD forces were on standing orders to kill all non-humans on sight, save for the shinigami, made the situation all the more harrowing.

The HSF commander, affectionately referred to as 'Chief' by all those familiar with him, had been ineffectively trying to drive this simple fact into their heads. Cirucci, Neliel, Pesche, Dondochakka, and Bawabawa were all dying to go out and make a difference, but Chief refused to budge on the matter. The fact that those reiatsu vision goggles he was wearing were immensely agitating his eyes, could also be a factor in this whole mess.

"Then dammit, let us speak to the president! I want to speak with him directly if that's the issue!"

"I'm already on the borderline of disobeying my orders for not throwing the lot of you into the brig. Now you're asking me to let you talk to the most powerful man in the world, at the time where he's at his most irritable?" The burly man questioned.

Neliel was about to continue arguing, but Cirucci put a hand on her shoulder. The green haired woman turned to her purple haired friend with a questioning look. The privaron espada winked to her, non-verbally sending the message 'let me handle this'.

"We'll humans never accomplish things by not taking chances, right?"

"What does that have do to wi-"

"And if humanity never accomplished anything, they'd be extinct, right?"

"What kind of backwards logic are you-"

"So do you want to be the one responsible for your species going extinct?"

"I…I don't even-"

"So the logical conclusion is to let us speak with the man in charge and take a chance."

Everyone in the room stared at Cirucci with dumbfounded expressions. Her fellow arrancar were unable to tell if she was trying to irritate the human into submission, or being completely serious.

The female in question, maintained her arrogant smirk. Chief groaned, massaging his temple.

"….Well I hope your happy for yourself. Because of you, I have a migraine."

"So is that a yes?" Cirucci asked.

"Dammit, I'm close to retirement anyway. Let's just get this call over with." Chief sighed and turned on his computer.

Cirucci turned around to see her stupefied comrades gawking at her. She proudly smiled back at them, hands on her hips in a high and mighty pose.

"Take note Neliel. If you want something from a man, don't ask from him. Argue with him. Human or not, women are incapable of losing arguments to men under any circumstance."

Neliel dumbly nodded, while Chief scowled at the woman. He was tempted to argue until he remembered all the occasions he had argued with his wife. Realizing a lost cause when he saw one, he didn't even bother to pursue the subject matter anymore.

The man felt his sense of dread rising with every key he typed and every demand he put in. His feelings only heightened as he noticed the arrancar watching him to make sure he would follow through on his promise. The HSF commander felt as if he was clicking his life away as he gave the computer the demand to contact the president. He dearly hoped the man would ignore the call, but knew that he wasn't being realistic. With all the activity going on in Japan, any message from a PWCD base located in the area wouldn't be ignored.

The Japanese man's heart sunk as the screen turned black and white letters flashed across the monitor, reading 'establishing connection'.

The black screen was promptly replaced with the face of the PWCD president. The man was known for being competent and easy going at the same time, traits that endeared him to the rest of the organization. However, these days he was all business. There wasn't even a semblance of a smile to speak of on his face, just an expression caught between regret and agitation.

Chief subconsciously gulped.

"I'm _very _busy right now HSF Commander Miyabi. What is your-, why aren't those arrancar in a cell?" Chief's eyes widened and he turned around. Standing behind him were both Neliel and Cirucci, who had apparently slinked right behind his chair to get a better view of the computer screen. He was certain that these women had dug a grave for him somewhere, and were just waiting to drop him in.

"Hey, he's spiritually aware." Cirucci noted. The president managed to see them without the aid of ectoplasmic goggles. Neliel, however, went straight to business.

"President we demand to go to the frontline to fight!" She yelled. Cirucci tried and failed to repress the urge to face-palm at her friend's bluntness. Nel may be stronger than her, but she needs a few lessons in politics. Chief of which is 'don't raise your voice at the man you're trying to endear yourself to.'

The President simply stared at the green haired woman for a moment, before slowly turning his attention the HSF commander. The man in question _almost_ flinched under his superior's gaze.

"You've got a _looooot_ of explaining to do Mr. Miyagi."

xxXxx

Author's note: Sorry for the delay. I intended to have the story up last night, but the desire for sleep and a mid-night snack got the better of me.

One month of summer vacation left before my senior year….guess I better make it count….Mom's already pressuring me to get a prom date and-wait am I actually typing this while I think? I….um….BYE!


	30. Missile Crisis

Author's note: What's up people? I just posted up the newest chapter of my skulltaker fic (now renamed to 'The Harrowing'). That chapter was about the daemon hacking up the Familiar of zero anime.

Quick question. Is it considered healthy to be taking so much enjoyment imagining those cute looking anime characters being butchered by a 10 foot tall daemon? No matter how serious those anime characters try to be, the way they look makes it that much harder to take seriously. Adding in those odd faces they make in every show just ruins it for me. Then there are the anime that are always full of angst and gloom.

I'm torn right now between which anime I want to despoil first.

Should it be Inuyasha? Those pesky creatures need to realize what a _REAL _daemon looks like. In addition, watching the skulltaker decapitate every daemon, daemon hunter, hybrid, and human he crosses should be very therapeutic.

Maybe Fate/Stay Night? I can just imagine a surprise guest entering the Holy Grail war, with absolutely no regard for secrecy. It should also be mentioned that I want to see all these close combat masters learn how it's done from a real duelist.

By the way, my football coach is an ex-special forces member. When I did conditioning with him, I found out that I was physically fit enough to keep up with a team of U.S. spec ops on a routine physical conditioning day. If I can get my dad to teach me the basics of one of the fighting styles he trains in, I'll actually be able to hold my own in a straight up fight against a Special Forces soldier. That's A LOT of if's, considering my dad's spent the last two years getting a black belt in any one fighting style, but a boy can dream.

Anyway, here's your long overdue story update.

xxXxx

**Missile Crisis**

December 26th, Japan, Karakura city

The Meta and Yuri became nothing but blurs of movement.

Yuri wasn't as maneuverable with his jet pack, but he still had augmented reaction times, and years of practice in using his thunder hammer. He was also very accomplished in mixing hand to hand combat with armed combat. The Meta was notably faster and more agile, but his sword blows were weaker than his opponent's hammer blows. The Meta also retained his combative skills as a commando, which was above that of most augments. These differing skill sets balanced out surprisingly well actually.

Byakuya was unable to completely track the movements of the two as they dueled.

For every blow thrown, a counter was made. The two combatants had lost any sense of strategic attacks and descended into a world of speed and reaction. Dodge, block, attack, and repeat. The Meta slashed and hacked at Yuri repeatedly with its blade, but the shock trooper countered with blocks and swings of his hammer. The Meta had made sure to steer clear of Yuri's hammer attacks, for the damage it would do to its armor. Yuri made sure to watch out for those point blank balas the Meta so thoroughly enjoyed using.

Yuri swung his hammer straight down at the Meta, who blocked by putting his blade against the pole connecting to the hammerhead, rather than the hammerhead itself. In this way, the Meta could block without triggering the hammers concussive blast. Yuri launched a front kick that the Meta leg-checked with a right knee. The Meta threw a punch that Yuri sprung up with his forearm. The Meta twisted its weapon around so that the rail rifle was pointing toward Yuri, who in response slapped the barrel away. The Jerk caused the Meta to discharge the shot harmlessly to the side. The Meta pushed the augment away with its brute strength, to which Yuri snapped up with his side arm.

Time slowed down as adrenaline really kicked in. The Meta saw the bullets leave the barrel of the weapon and leaned out of their path. Yuri snapped off two more shots, which one was dodged while the other pinged off the Meta's armor. The Meta returned fire by shooting off 3 balas. Yuri evaded the 3 orbs of red energy with ease, just before the Meta sonido'd into his face.

The Meta attempted to run the augment through, to which he twisted his torso out the way of the attack. The Meta turned and swung a back fist at the shock trooper captain, to which he placed his hammer in the path of the attack. Seeing this, the Meta grabbed the hammer's shaft and moved to yank it away. Yuri launched a punch to the Meta's bare skull before that could happen, which only barely rattled it. Yuri brought out his hand gun again and fired it point blank into the Meta's face.

That DID get a reaction.

The Meta cried out in pain as the bullet dug into the bone before pinging off. The arrancar's bones were as hard as armor, but it was also the Meta's actual face. Regardless of the damage, it still hurt quite a bit. The Meta regained its bearings just in time to receive a hammer blow to the gut. The Meta slid back and grunted in pain.

Ikkaku shunpo'd behind the Meta with his polearm raised to strike.

The hybrid whipped around and buried its fist into the shinigami's gut, bending the shaven man over. The Meta turned and saw Yuri coming at it at full speed. The hybrid lifted up the winded 3rd seat and hurled him at the speeding shock trooper.

Yuri didn't have the chance to bank out of the way.

Ikkaku smacked into the shock trooper, sending both of the soldiers flying in opposite directions. Yuri saw that a part of his visor was cracked from the impact. The Meta sonido'd in front of Yuri with its weapon in hand. Yuri tried to block but the Meta shoved a boot into his gut. The shock trooper's power armor dented at the impact as he was sent flying back.

Before the Meta could push its advantage, a familiar pink mist came at it.

The Meta sonido'd to the side to evade Byakuya's attack, only to have to block a strike from Hisagi Shuhei. The hybrid kicked away the shinigami with a side kick. The Meta quickly spun around and blocked a polearm swing. Shuuhei hurled one of his scythes at the Meta, which the hybrid caught with its free hand. The Meta yanked the scythe just before it drove its knee into Ikkaku's gut, forcing the shinigami to bend over. Shuuhei was surprised as he was pulled forward by his own chain. The Meta grabbed Ikkaku by the scruff of his uniform before lurching forward. Shuhei eyes bulged as the Meta rammed Ikkaku's head into his stomach. The Meta jawed Shuhei with a right hook before kneeing Ikkaku in the head. While Shuhei was still reeling from the on slot of blows, the Meta slashed him across the chest and sent him flying backward. The Meta whipped around and tried to slash Ikkaku as well. The shinigami managed to block with his polearm, but the Meta was having none of it. The Meta wrapped its hand around the shinigami's weapon and yanked it forward, bringing the shinigami with it. The Meta head butted Ikkaku, but the man still held on to the weapon. The hybrid decided to end this, and raised its blade high for a decapitation swing.

The Meta cried out as a something slashed across its back, cutting through both its armor and hierro. Ikkaku was released from an impromptu death when the Meta let him go in favor of flailing.

Shuhei felt pretty good about himself, despite a lot of things. This arrancar was kicking their asses in the most intense fight he'd ever been in, yet he had just managed to wound it and save his ally in the process. He stilled when the Meta turned to look at him. The creature's head was a hollowed out skull wearing a busted open helmet, so it couldn't show expressions. However, the intensity of that empty stare and the waves of aggravated reiatsu the creature emitted told the story well enough.

The Meta was _pissed_.

Ikkaku tried to strike the Meta from behind with his polearm. The hybrid whipped around and back handed approximately 3 teeth out of Ikkaku's mouth, as well as an impressive amount of blood. Ikkaku was sent rocketing to the ground below. Shuhei made the mistake of briefly watching his ally fall to the ground rather than watch the Meta. When he looked up, the hybrid was flying at him with a cry of bloody murder.

Yuri speared the Meta in the back with his hammer, making it yell out a pained and angry hiss. The two armored soldiers kept going until they hit the roof of a building.

Shuhei breathed a sigh of relief. Then he promptly sat down in midair to get a breather.

xxXxx

Aizen stood by himself.

Standing directly in front of him was the newly elected Captain Commander, Unohana Retsu. Behind her were 4 human assault terminators, and 2 rail gun armed bunker suits. Behind Aizen stood Zaraki and more terminators armed with RPSMG's. To his right and left were Ichigo and Isshin on one side, Yoruichi and Kisuke on the other.

Behind all of them were dozens of augments and bunker suits with rifles, rail guns, RPG's, and an assortment of other firearms.

Aizen briefly sensed out for Tousen and Gin, who he had gotten separated from in the confusion of the fighting. Tousen had been killed in his fight against Captain Komamura, who Aizen recalled "disarming" during his fight with the numerous vizards and captains. Gin seemed to be busy fighting someone, but couldn't sense another powerful reiatsu signature, which made him conclude he was fighting an augment.

A helicopter had flown overhead, shining a searchlight directly upon his head. It was sufficient in interrupting Aizen's thoughts.

"Aizen Sosuke. You are surrounded by PWCD forces and unable to escape. Surrender immediately or we will open fire."

Aizen smirked. The Hogyoku had given him a powerful garb of armor that made him immune to just about any explosive, zanpakutou, or ballistic weapon these fools could use. He was more powerful than any shinigami, arrancar, hollow, or any other creature. They couldn't defeat him. Why wouldn't they accept that?

"You can't win. Your weapons aren't potent enough to harm me." Aizen stated with assurance.

The PWCD were unsure whether or not he was bluffing, but they'd be damned if they didn't call his bluff either way.

"FIRE!"

The ground itself seemed to vibrate as dozens of assault rifles, snipers, RPGs, RPSMG's, Rail guns, and miniguns poured onto Aizen. Guns pounded for a solid ten seconds as men emptied there weapons into the immobile target before them. The larger explosive weapons such as the terminator's RPSMGs and bunker suit's rail rifles slammed into the target, causing large explosions with every impact. So much fire had been pumped into the target that he was completely obscured by smoke.

Standing in the middle of a middle-sized crater, completely unfazed, was Aizen. He looked around boredly as the augments shifted in surprise. Aizen had just taken enough fire to potentially sink a cruise liner, and stood as if it wasn't a big deal at all.

"Are you quite finished?"

_POP! POP! POP! POP!_

Before the traitorous shinigami could blink, he was electrocuted by, not 1, but 4 thunder hammers. He easily stayed up right, but he figured that his suit would protect him from electrocutional aspect of the human's thunder hammers.

Even he could be wrong at times.

Aizen built up the reiatsu in his body. The assault terminators were busily hammering away at him, trying to cause any kind of injury they could. Aizen spread out his arms and released a giant shockwave of purple reiatsu.

Everyone within a blocks radius of Aizen went flying from the burst of energy he released. Multi-ton terminator and bunker suits were sent tumbling through buildings and piles of rubble. Augments in standard power armor were tossed like rag dolls. The helicopter hovering in the air was sent into a tail spin after nearly being slapped out the sky by Aizen's reiatsu burst.

Even the assembled shinigami, substitute shinigami, and ex-shinigami were thrown by the attack into buildings or smashed through piles of rubble.

Aizen looked around, his confidence reaching its peak when he saw all his enemies had literally been swept away. He had only used what he considered to be an equivalent to a muscle flex.

The sound of something _swishing_ through the air distracted Aizen from his self-appraisal. The traitorous shinigami looked in the air to see an object that was quite far off in the distance. When he stared at it longer, he realized that object had gone from 'off in the distance', to 'noticeably closer' in maybe a second and a half. Aizen was able to make out a dart shaped object nearly covered in smoke that was moving in his direction at an ark.

His eyes widened when he realized that was the same thing that had killed Nnoitra in a single hit!

Aizen was very self-assured that he could take more punishment than Nnoitra, or any person, could possibly hope to achieve with the Hogyoku at the stage it was now. However, he didn't want to needlessly risk his life when he knew, that survival wasn't 100% guaranteed.

Aizen prepared to fire a beam of focused reiatsu at the incoming missile. Purple reiatsu built up on his hand, as Aizen aimed carefully. All he needed to do is make contact with the projectile and it would detonate harmlessly in the air. If he made the blast radius large enough, he wouldn't have to be spot on, just vaguely in the right direction. Aizen began to release his attack-

Wait. What was that sound?

"_aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa_!"

Someone slammed into Aizen's back, throwing off his aim.

Aizen's attack discharged straight into the air, missing the intended target by a mile. The laser guided missile came streaking straight for Aizen.

The traitorous shinigami whipped around and glared at this new aggressor.

Lying on the ground was Ikkaku, who was nursing a broken jaw. He seemed oblivious to the fact that he had just slammed into Aizen, the sworn enemy of the Soul Society, and as of today, every known sentient species native to earth and the afterlife. Once Ikkaku's world stopped spinning, he turned and looked behind him. He saw some weird freak wearing an all white body suit, but looked straight past him. His eyes were locked onto an object directly behind the weird purple eyed freak.

His eyes widened and shunpo'd away with prodding from his fully functional survival instinct.

Aizen briefly thought that the shinigami was scared off by his new armored appearance, but then he remembered just why he had been so irritated by the weakling shinigami in the first place. Aizen whipped around and tried to fire another beam, but he was too little too late.

The missile struck him dead in the chest before detonating.

xxXxx

Author's note: Sorry for the long wait time.

My list of anime on the Skulltaker's chopping block so far is:

Inuyasha

Code Geass

Sailor Moon (LOL. Soul eating daemon vs women out of a 13 year old sailor's wet dream)

Naruto

Fate/Stay Night

Infinite Stratos

Hellsing

Negima

And maybe a few more irritating animes later on.

I have to say, Code Geass is getting the most request to drop the Skulltaker next. I fully understand why to. I saw the first season and tiny tid-bits of the second season. It was quite literally the most serious, and most anger inspiring anime I've ever seen. I'm not even Japanese and I despised, but at the same time loved, watching that show. Civilians being murdered for damn near no reason, a megalomaniac who wants to dethrone god (in the loosest definition of the word 'god' possible), and most of all, the way that none of the people you want to die seem to get killed off the most.

Code Geass is like the modern day but with 4 distinctions.

First: The 13 colonies evolve into Britannia, rather than the United States of America for some odd reason. America was initially created solely to oppose Aristocratic rule (which Britannia is, which makes you wonder why they rebelled in the first place)

Second: The pacific front of World War 2 against Japan was ultimately decided with the invention giant robots (or 'Knightmare Frames'), rather than the use of the atomic bomb. With world war 2 tech, its understandable how giant robots could steam roll everyone.

Third: The U.S…. er.. 'Britannia' started imperializing other countries with their giant robots. Already developed, stable, economically sound countries. They broke every law in the Geneva Code, which made the world get angry and tell them to stop, to which they replied 'Make us. We have giant robots! What do you have?" As a result, every country in the world united under one of three banners; The Britannian Empire, European Union (or something like that), and The China Republic (which owns most of Asia). All except Japan, who gets invaded and taken over by Britannia who renames it to "Area 11" just to add insult to injury.

Fourth: There's an immortal, green haired chick who goes around handing out psychic powers for no apparent reason but her own amusement.

Sorry fellow Code Geass loathers, but if I write about Code Geass, It'll HAVE to end with Britannia collapsing as a nation. The Skulltaker and his juggernaut would kill plenty of giant robots, but a full army of them would be a bit much. It'd take a full chaos daemons host to topple Britannia…..

Then again, I never said the Skulltaker couldn't call in help every once in a while.


	31. Not Easily Broken

Author's note: Sorry this story is starting to fall behind in chapters. My other fan-fiction story 'The Harrowing', is taking up more time than I originally intended. I'll resolve to pay more attention to this story, now that it's so close to completion.

Btw, vote on the next anime you wanna see put on the skulltaker's hit list. I was personally torn between which anime I wanted to go at next.

Fate/Stay night and inuyasha are both equally viable candidates. Watching heroes of the past, as well as their masters, get tossed by the Skulltaker is an appealing thought. I've had the image of the khornate herald manhandling Hercules in my head for a while (the most bizarre depiction of Hercules at that). On the other hand, inuyasha is practically begging for something to ransack them, seeing how much of an ego problem these demons (not to be confused with 'daemons') tend to have. I can't decide. So I'll have my favorite people in Fan-Fiction, the reviewers, take their pic.

…

No. Scratch that. An anonymous viewer recommended an anime called "Dog Days". I only watched the intro where a bunch of happy looking anime characters with animal ears fight each other with smiles on their faces. And the dog people murder a bunch of cannon fodder cat/man soldiers with the typical "power" based attacks I've stated repeatedly that I disdain. When those cat/men 'died'…they puffed into pillow pets. Apparently the reverse of that disease from planet of the apes showed up (the original, not the remake), and killed everything that wasn't a dog or a cat. Then those two species evolved to basically be humans with furry ears, while maintaining their natural rivalry they had as house pets. And now they apparently decide to get into a war over it….their definition of war being some kind of athletic competition. They then go the 'Familiar of Zero' route and randomly snatch a teenager from his house to risk his…something…. in a war he wasn't in any way involved in, over something that's not even worth him being involved in. And then the once semi realistic battle, which I thought at first was just emitting the actual deaths for the sake of kids who are watching, pulls out sports commentators, and cannons that fire beanie bags. What was once a battle turned into an episode of ultimate wipeout. At that point I stared at the shotgun under my bed and then at the back button, judging which would end this misery faster.

I could go farther and ask why these kids tend to even LIKE these people, who are basically turning them into Ugandan child soldiers…or underage Japanese Olympic contestants in this case. I could ask why kidnapping a teenager was necessary when they have 50,000 or so trained 'soldiers' that fit the bill for 'kingdom savior' better. In short….everyone needs to die. There needs to be an apocalypse, aliens have to show up, God himself could cause a spontaneous hurricane. I don't care. Every person in that series NEEDS to die.

Point is, the Skulltaker NEEDS to rip that entire universe a new one. As soon as I learn enough about it to write a semi-accurate story, I'm dropping him inside that furry fetish, exo-sketch clothing, tsundere filled, rainbow colored, my little pony affiliated nightmare to pull every single person/place/thing he meets inside out!

….

Sorry about that.

Anyway, watch this new chapter.

xxXxx

**Not Easily Broken**

Aizen was lying in a fairly large crater.

He wasn't mortally wounded or even bleeding, yet he had taken an anti-tank missile to the gut. The white armor he wore had taken the brunt of the attack, but had beencracked at the chest area.

To be blunt, Aizen had taken a jet missile to the gut and came out unscathed.

Well that wasn't entirely true. He may not have been damaged directly, but the missile had struck him in the gut hard enough to drive the air from his lungs. Aizen was winded on the ground, trying to catch his breath. It was at this point that Aizen began to regret wearing his armor, as it was restricting his breathing, or rather his ability _to_ breathe.

Aizen staggered to his feet, trying to suck air through the reactive fabric of his skin tight armor.

He barely got the chance to stand to his feet before something smashed against his side and sent him skidding into a wall. Aizen calmly walked out the hole he made, unscathed. He immediately brought his sword up to block when Ichigo and Isshin began hammering away at him with their swords. Urahara and Yoruichi jumped in whenever either of the Kurosaki family members disengaged, being sure that their more powerful attacks didn't overlap and hit each other…or the surrounding PWCD soldiers for that matter.

Aizen was calmly fighting off the four combatants with contemptuous ease. So much so that it was almost insulting. As they pressed, Aizen began to slowly but surely falter.

Yoruichi struck him dead on with her most powerful attack: Shunko. Urahara followed up with his own Bankai, using Shibai Benihime as a snare net/explosive trap. Finally, Isshin hit him with his most powerful Getsuga Tenshou. The combo of the 3 devastating attacks had the entire chest and head section of Aizen's armor cracked, and potentially vulnerable.

Aizen was not impressed.

Before any of the 3 could blink, Aizen created another energy burst of reiatsu, stunning 3 of the 4 combatants. Aizen then used his Bankai ability, manipulating the time and space around him to slow his enemies down. With that done, Aizen focused his reiatsu outward in a scathing burst of heat. Yoruichi, Isshin, and Urahara were sent crashing to the ground, joining the numerous shinigami captains and Vizards, who had all been non-lethally felled by Aizen.

The man was almost laughing with the ease he could defeat others. At his power level, he was fully convinced that no individual, no army, no _world_, could stop him now. Speaking of which, he looked around.

PWCD soldiers were scattered all around him, either dead, dying, or aiming a useless weapon at him. A few of the heavily armored augments brought heavy weapons to bare, ready to kill the madman that had caused such suffering and death in his lonesome. He could hear the sound of more approaching helicopters and gunships, likely bringing more PWCD soldiers to try to fight him, or picking up those that remained and evacuating them. Either way, he didn't care much.

He stood with an arrogant smirk underneath his mask as an assortment of ordinance weapons, artillery, rail guns, and hand held rifles pinged off his armor, failing to even worsen the cracks that had already been placed on his armor. Ballistic weapons were entirely ineffective on him by this point. Even the missile attack that could kill almost any arrancar with a direct hit, failed to leave more than a tiny crack on the chest area. He was entirely invulnerable to any attack these humans could use against him.

The traitorous shinigami did notice something odd though. The humans had weapons that used sound itself as either the damage dealer or the delivery system. He was unsure how his armor would fare against those, but they had all seemingly disappeared. If he had miscalculated, those may be able to wound him. Curious that the one human weapon that posed a threat had chosen now to completely disappear.

Aizen was also curious where Ichigo, Unohana, and Zaraki had gotten off to during the confusion.

xxXxx

The atmosphere in the carrier was sober to say the least.

Tia Harribel sat in her chair, next to her fraccion. She was resigned to her fate, realizing how powerless she was in this situation. The amount of damage she took from the explosion had insured that she, as well as the rest of the arrancar, wouldn't be anywhere near powerful enough put up a decent fight for at least a week until they healed. Ulquiorra's accelerated healing factor may shorten that to a few days, but him being the closest had made him take more damage than any of the others.

She quietly sat there, glaring at the augment seated across from her.

There were 10 augments in total.

All of them had their weapons at ease, but it was clear in the way they held them that they were prepared to shoot at any given second. With their power levels being so weak that their skin was equal in hardness to that of a normal human's skin, a single well placed shot would kill any of them then and there.

The way they sat them down eerily reminded her of those 'firing lines' she had heard of once.

With the exception of Ulquiorra, who was lying on a bed and being treated by a human healer or 'medic' as they called, the rest of them had been sat across the seats on right side of the plane. The augments sat on the opposite side so that any one of them could simply spray them all with bullets.

In short, there was no real means of escape.

Even if they had their full powers, this proximity would allow the humans an opportunity to get in a few kill shots before they could respond. So, with no other means of occupying time, the arrancar sat and glared at their captors. It was unclear whether the augments were glaring back, due to the human's odd fascination with opaque lensed, head covering helmets, but it was assumed they returned the sentiment. The one exception was Starrk, who had asked someone to wake him up when they got there before promptly nodding off. Lilynette gave up trying to keep him awake eventually, and joined him in his impromptu nap. Even the augments seemed a tad thrown off by Starrk's strange mannerisms.

The aircraft lightly jolted, alarming the arrancar.

The carrier had landed, as made evidence by the weightless feeling the aircraft caused, being gone. The back latch opened up, letting bright sunlight beam through. The 2 augments sitting closest to the hatch quickly stood up and walked outside the hatch before stopping and pivoting to face the hatch with their guns raised. The leader of the humans ordered the arrancar prisoners to exit out the back hatch of the vehicle, using their weapons as a method of persuasion.

Harribel sighed and stood up, her fraccion dutifully standing up with her. As she walked, she noticed for the first time that her fraccion hadn't fired off a single rude remark, insult, or had any form of confrontation with each other on the way here. She didn't know whether to be relieved that they were willing to put aside their petty dislikes, or dread the situation they were in even more, knowing that it was dire enough to halt even her own fraccion's tendencies toward fighting.

As she walked down the hatch, the first thing she became aware of was the light beaming into her eyes, damn near blinding her. The next thing she noticed was smiling face of Neliel, who was cheerfully waving while standing next to the two aug-…

Wait, what?

"Neliel?" Harribel asked, completely thrown off by the former tercera's appearance.

She had never personally met the woman, but she did know _about _her. She was one of the few female arrancar that was powerful enough to be in the ranks of the espada. She stood out wherever she went with her sea green hair. A thousand questions were flowing through her head. Why was the former tercera espada here of all places? Why did the augments seem to not mind her presence in the slightest, despite her being more of a threat than any of them at the moment? Had she truly been here all these years?

Her fraccion descended into mindless half-statements at the other female arrancar's appearance. They probably didn't realize she was the third espada, but they _did _notice that there were human augments within her vicinity that clearly knew she was there, and they didn't seem to mind.

"The one and only!" Neliel cheerfully stated.

"What are you doing here? Hey humans! Are you blind? There's an arrancar right next to you!" Apache yelled. She was silenced by having a rifle pointed not even a foot from her face.

"She's sanctioned, and an official member of the PWCD. You're all POW's."

"She's WHAT!" Mila-Rose yelled in outrage!

By this time, Starrk and Grimmjow had been moved outside the ship, while Ulquiorra was carried out on a stretcher. They had heard the entire conversation, seeing as it was taking place only a couple feet away from the landed carrier. The arrancar were all giving the former tercera dirty looks as they realized where her new allegiance was.

Neliel felt she should explain the full situation.

"Before you get any wrong ideas," She started.

"_Too late for that_." Grimmjow and Apache murmured. Neliel fixed the both of them with a stern look.

"_As I was saying_, I disappeared from Las Noches, but not by choice. Nnoitra ambushed me, using some hologram trick, and damaged my mask fragment. Before that, he ripped of the mask fragments from my fraccion, devolving them. He then left the three of us in the dirt outside of Las Noches. Apparently it was his 'proof' of male superiority. My fraccion had to look after me for countless years in my weakened state, while we aimlessly walked around the desserts of Huecco Mundo."

The arrancar silently listened. She seemed to not be lying, and this WAS something that sounded within Nnoitra's personality to do. Harribel suddenly felt much happier about Nnoitra being picked off by a Jet missile. Before, she lamented the loss of power he had, but now she couldn't even come to regret that. But that still left several unanswered questions.

"Well if you didn't betray us to work for the humans, then how _did _you end up becoming involved with them?" The current tercera asked. Her fraccion perked up, also intrigued by the answer to this question.

"Well, during the attack on Las Noches-" The augment squad leader chose this moment to finally intervene.

"As exhilarating as this is, we have orders to bring you in and detain you. You can carry on with your conversation then."

Neliel apologized for holding them up, and moved out of the way. The augments began ushering the arrancar forward, toward a small one story building. As Neliel followed behind them, she explained that the PWCD base was MUCH larger than it initially appeared. It was actually almost entirely underground, with multiple levels and secret exits. She had been living here for the past month and she had yet to memorize all the different exits and lockdown plans on any single floor, much less the entire complex.

Harribel felt her gut clench when she learned that this was simply one of the many hundreds of PWCD bases like it, scattered across the earth. If this was true, than that meant the humans had countless secret bases to meet in for attacks and invasions. She was forced to wonder just how vast the human armies must be if the PWCD, a single sub-military for all of humanity, had more resources to pull from than both Las Noches and the Soul Society combined. If they had the weapons and manpower to fight them for quite some time, than she wondered how lucky they really were that humans couldn't see them up until now.

In her time in Las Noches, she heard of countless threats to humanity, the shinigami, or both. All of them were militant groups numbering in the double digits at best. They all had high levels of power, but with the PWCD's appearance, she was forced to wonder just how much that would amount to nowadays. The augments had proven that there were far more creative ways to kill one's enemy than simply overpowering them in a pitched battle. If the PWCD, or not even them, humanity in general became more involved in the affairs of the spirit world, than how drastically could things change?

Even she was hesitant to want to know the answer, and she considered herself fairly curious.

xxXxx

The Meta and Yuri were tumbling throughout the entire office building.

The hybrid and shock trooper both knew that fighting in close quarters like these would turn into a brawl. Claustrophobic brawls such as these typically favored the stronger fighter, unless the other fighter was well versed in ways of mitigating strength.

Unfortunately for Yuri, the Meta still had its commando training, which learned even more advanced 'skill over strength' techniques than the average augment. In spaces like this, the Meta could punch him three times per hammer swing he managed to get off. The shock trooper was at a disadvantage in both strength and training.

And it was beginning to show.

Yuri was hurled through a water jug, making water splash all over his armor and weapons. He barely managed to prop himself back up with his hammer before the Meta rushed him again.

Yuri spat blood out into his helmet as he was struck three times in gut by the hybrid, ineffectually trying to block with his own arms. He threw a punch at the thing's chest, but its arrancar-like body shrugged off the weak blow like it was air. The Meta head butted the shock trooper hard enough to send him flying backward. Yuri whipped out his side arm and poured shots down range. The Meta easily dodged the bullets before reaching out for the nearest object. Before Yuri could dodge, he had an office chair slam into his side hard enough to break a rib.

Yuri was once again tossed like a ragdoll across the room. When he landed, he was struck by a bala, courtesy of the Meta. The shock trooper was sent through the floor and fell flat on a table underneath him, crushing it beneath his weight and momentum.

His thunder hammer fell from his hand after he landed, discharging when it banged onto the floor.

The Meta sonido'd directly above the shock trooper captain. Yuri balefully glared at the creature, unable to stand back up. He was unsure, but the creature seemed to be laughing at him from just the way it looked. It was as if seeing one of the most dangerous augments in the PWCD lying battered and broken at its feet was a hilarious joke to it. In a final act of defiance, Yuri ripped out a knife on his shoulder sheath and hurled it at the hybrid's skull.

The Meta caught the knife without effort. It then proceeded to squeeze the blade until it bent and warped under its grip, turning the sharp blade into a useless piece of metal.

Yuri refused to die on his back and activated his jet pack. The Meta was faster, jamming its zanpakuto/Kondra through Yuri's shoulder and into the Jet pack, disabling both the machine and the user.

"_**GAAAAhhH**_!" Yuri cried out.

He was breathing heavily, feeling the blade had passed straight through the bone, but did not separate it entirely. The blade was lodged in, making every slight movement unbearably agonizing. He couldn't shift in any way without making his pierced shoulder muscle and bone move and set off the nerves there. All he could do was grit his teeth and take deep breaths to try and ease the pain.

The Meta powered a cero in its right hand, preparing to put the augment out of his misery.

"Weapons free."

**BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!**

The Meta cried out as multiple rail rifle rounds punched through its armor and continued on through its hierro. The creature quickly sonido'd to the side before diving into cover, ripping out its weapon from Yuri's shoulder along the way. Yuri cried out in pain as his bone and muscle were splintered and torn even more from the rough movement.

The Meta blind fired back at where those shots came from, but was unable to score any hits. The only cover inside the building was the thin walls and desks, which rail rifle rounds easily could punch through. With commando helmets being able to outline their targets, the purpose of cover in this setting was null and void. The Meta beat a hasty retreat in the opposite direction, but cried out as even more rail rifle shots came from that direction as well.

Improvising, the Meta fired a cero straight ahead of it, blowing out every wall and inanimate object in its way. The Meta flew outside before sonidoing away, badly wounded.

Yuri was about to faint from blood loss. As he looked up, he saw a familiar person looking back down at him, along with the highest number of PWCD commandos he had ever seen in one place. Two of such commandos were giving him morphine and doing their best to patch up his wounds.

"Sign off Yuri. You've earned a rest." Yuri saw an augment wearing standard power armor beneath a trench coat. While the coat was new, he recognized that voice from anywhere.

"Yes.. sir…. Commander Wesker." With that Yuri laid his head back and released a sigh.

He gave into unconsciousness, confident that he was now in good hands.

xxXxx

Sorry for the delay. It has been what…8 days since the last update? I need to get caught up. Normally I'd have posted up 3 to 4 new chapters over the course of 8 days. I guess that's what I get for trying to write for two different stories, about two completely unrelated things, at once.

Anyways, sorry to disappoint, but I watched the youtube video of Aizen fighting Isshin, Urahara, and Yoruichi at once. I saw the amount of punishment he was taking, and I doubt a single Jet missile will off him. Sure, jet missiles are meant to penetrate and THEN blow up, but the kind of stuff Aizen was getting hit with seemed to do way more damage than that. Of course, Aizen can be hurt by more than blunt force attacks. Sonic weapons won't be any less effective just because he's wearing a nigh-impenetrable suit. Electricity still stings, despite the armor he's wearing.

I'm not one for spoilers, but that seen where Gin blows a hole through Aizen's chest should've killed him then and there. His entire heart and lungs were gone! The heart, I can understand. Once you get hollowfied, you lose your heart anyway (no one explains WHY you're heart just up and disappears when you become a hollow. All it does is pump blood through your body). His lungs were GONE though. How was he supposed to even breathe, much less talk?

I don't think people understand how regeneration works. There has to be something _left_ for you to regenerate from. If you have wolverine healing, and someone removes your brain, it won't regenerate back. The rest of your body will, but because your brain is gone, there is no part of the brain left to regenerate from. You'd just be perfectly functioning body, with no brain telling you how to work or what to do. In Aizen's case, his entire lung was gone. Therefore, he should've been chocking to death because now he literally lost the ability to breathe.

Also, can someone please explain the science behind arrancar mask fragments? Neliel gets her mask damaged and turns into a little girl. Pesche and Dondochaka get theirs riped off and devolve into hollows (or weaker arrancar. Forgot which). Findor clips a piece of his mask fragment off and become as powerful as most shinigami captains. I don't know if getting a piece of your mask messed up is supposed to be a good or bad thing at this point, as it seems to just do whatever is convenient for the plot.

Then again, anime tend to follow their own physics anyway, not real world physics. I even found someone who actually spent a sizeable amount of time making a set law of physics (and other things) to explain why everything in anime happens the way it does. I copied to my profile just to read whenever I watch an anime. My personal favorite was this one:

**#20- Law of Militaristic Unreliability- Huge galaxy-wide armadas, entire armies, and large war machines full of cruel, heartless, bloodthirsty warriors can be stopped and defeated with a single insignificant example of a caring/loving emotion or a song.**

**First Corollary- Whenever a single war machine (mecha, starship, etc.) goes up against an entire army, the army always loses.**

It just…speaks to me for some reason. *hides this entire story under a rug*. My second favorite is this one.

**#5 - Law of Mechanical Mobility, Second Law of Anime Motion- The larger a mechanical device is, the faster it moves. Armoured Mecha are the fastest objects known to human science.**

Glances at most mecha based anime (Code Geass, Infinite Stratos, Gundam, Vandread….). You know, it IS suspicious that a robot with arms and legs can fly circles around the world's most aerodynamic jets for some odd reason.

Anyways, have a nice day, and see you next chapter.


	32. Gin's Betrayal

Author's note: 'Mr I hate znt nobles, kill em' recommended an anime called Kämpfer (German for 'fighter'). Apparently from just reading the Wiki, it's another one of _those_ anime. The ones that do weird shit for no properly explained reason.

Imagine that you went to sleep as a dude (as I assume most of you are guys, with a few girls here and there). After waking up in the morning, first order of business is going to the bathroom. You walk straight past your bathroom mirror, thinking you saw something…off about your reflection but you're too out of it to really notice. You lift the toilet seat and drop your boxers, briefs, …tiddy whitties (I don't judge). You reach down to aim for the toilet…. and nothings there. You look down and realize that your dick is gone, replaced by a slit. You're first thought is that 'holy shit! Someone snuck in and neutered me while I was asleep!' You run to the mirror to see how bad it is. And there, standing in front of the mirror is someone who looks like your twin sister, but you know that you don't have a twin or a sister. You stare at the image of the girl and quickly notice that you aren't in it. Also the girl seems to be imitating every movement you do. After a few seconds you finally realize that you're a chick.

'What. The. Fuck.'

Next thing you notice is that a random, sentient, plushy toy with its guts spilling out shows up and tells you that you've been selected for an all-female, hunger games-esque, fighting tournament. Your toy/mentor refuses to answer your questions like 'why wasn't a female UFC fighter or a female CIA agent chosen instead' or 'if its female only, why are men being dragged in? That defeats the purpose of it being FEMALE ONLY!' Now you have to go through your day, trying to explain away to your family why you're wearing a ski mask and a thick sweater at 8:00 in the morning, and a whole mess of other details to people you meet on the way to school. You're on your way to school, wondering how you're gonna explain all this to your teachers so they know that you're 'Travis' or 'Bill', even though you look like a 'Stephany'.

Next thing you know, some crazy bitch is SHOOTING at you with a real fucking gun! You start running and find out that you have magic powers, super human abilities, and apparently the ability to dodge bullets ( that or the red head sucks so bad, she can't hit a target less than 10 feet away for shit).

The story goes from there.

These types of anime aren't usually my thing, but at the very least, I offer every anime the benefit of a doubt before watching it. I'll tell you how this anime goes later.

Well here's the next chapter.

xxXxx

**Gin's Betrayal**

Aizen felt more powerful than ever.

The face and neck area of Aizen's armor ripped open, signifying that he was evolving even further, thanks to the Hogyoku. With his new transformation, he was so powerful that the others couldn't even understand his power anymore. The downside to this was that now he couldn't use his spiritual pressure to crush anyone, because it was far too vast for him to focus in one spot. On the other hand, this meant he could easily overpower any enemy that came in his sights.

Aizen smirked as he watched the augments flee in their vehicles.

They had finally realized that they were utterly powerless before him and chose to retreat. Aizen was on such a power high, he didn't even bother to stop them. He just observed as they carried away their wounded and dying, all the while enjoying the salty looks they casted him from behind their helmets.

Aizen wasn't fooled by the display however.

He knew that more than likely they were simply getting clear so that their airships could bombard him. More than likely it would be the same weapon that had taken out all his remaining arrancar in a single blast. In his evolved state however, the chances of something like that actually _hurting_ him, much less killing him were pathetically low.

As the ex-shinigami was thinking to himself, he noticed Gin shunpo directly in front of him.

"Nice to see that you're finally done supervising." Aizen passive aggressively stated.

"I wasn't supervising. You just looked like you had it covered." Gin stated before turning around.

Gin watched as the PWCD evacuated the area, thoroughly beaten and battered. Gin had to wonder what the humans would try next. He knew that they had weapons powerful enough to hurt Aizen, if that mushroom cloud from earlier was any indication. Were they pulling back to strike Aizen with an attack like that, or were they seriously fleeing battle?

"**Engaging priority target."**

Gin was jolted from his thoughts when he saw 10 bunker suits standing to the edges of the surrounding buildings. These were the heavily armored augments he had seen earlier. Their armor was tough enough to rival maybe even Nnoitra's hierro in strength and sturdiness. They were very immobile in such suits, and as such, were always armed with support weapons. They also didn't so much have "helmets" as a giant metal dome over their head with cameras on the outside pointed in every direction. As such, they never had a blind spot; making attempts to flank them or ambush them repeatedly fall short.

In unison, they all pointed their weapons at Aizen.

Gin was unable to move fast enough as the Bunker suits fired their weapons. He was expecting some kind powerful supersonic bullet, a missile, a hail of small bullets, or _something_ to come out the end of the weapons they wielded. Instead, nothing came out but a high pitched noise. Seeing as none of the weapons were pointed at him, all Gin could hear was a faint sound at the back of his hearing, like an extremely powerful dog whistle. If he squinted really hard (more so than normal) he could see faint air distortions coming from the weapons.

Kind of anti-climactic to be honest.

"**GAAAAAAAHHH!**"

Gin whipped around when he heard a scream. What he saw surprised more than anything he ever thought he'd see.

Aizen was on his knees, clutching his own head in a vice grip. His mouth was open, but no words or sounds were coming out. It looked as if Aizen was screaming his lungs out, but someone had hit the mute button on him beforehand. Gin also noticed that the ground around Aizen was vibrating and cracking. Blood started to leak from Aizen's ears, as well as numerous bruises forming in the exposed places of Aizen's skin, possibly underneath the skin tight suit as well.

Gin looked back up at the bunker suits, then again at the crumpled form of Aizen. It was obvious that the humans were causing this, but how?

Before Gin could ponder this any longer, he whipped around and blocked a sword swing.

Staring him in the face, was one of the last people Gin Ichimura wanted to see right now. Zaraki Kenpachi.

Standing on either side of him was Ichigo and Unohana, both of whom had serious looks on their faces. Gin knew that he wouldn't be able to last against the three of them in combat. Aizen couldn't fight them off for him, as he was currently 'pinned down'. The only option left was for him to prove that he wasn't an enemy.

And now was his golden opportunity.

Gin shunpo'd away from Zaraki, right behind the silently screaming Aizen. The man in question was beginning to foam at the mouth, the numerous sound cannons wreaking havoc on his body. Gin almost felt sorry for having to end it this way.

"Kill'em, Kamishininoyari."

Aizen spat out blood as a giant hole ripped open in his chest, releasing the Hogyoku.

Ichigo, Zaraki, Retsu, and even the nearby Bunker suits were stunned by what had just occurred. The bunker suits held their fire, not expecting Aizen to experience friendly fire. Gin caught the tiny orb in his hand, looking at it with interest.

Before Ichigo could even manage to close his mouth in shock, a golf ball sized object was tossed at him, which he caught on reflex.

"Gin… You're…?"

"Against Aizen? Yeah, pretty much." He coolly stated.

Everyone was at a loss for the moment. The bunker suits were utterly confused on who to shoot now, and whether or not they should still kill Gin. Unohana had no idea what to say, having firmly believed that Gin and Tousen were irreversibly lost causes. Ichigo, having come to expect every fight to be a climactic one on one fight, was at a loss what to do, now that the big bad guy had just been assassinated by one of his most trusted men. Zaraki was disappointed that there wasn't anyone left to fight now.

The moment was abruptly ended when the previously deceased Aizen started unleashing a heavy amount of spiritual pressure. The ground shook as a yell of unadulterated rage left Aizen's throat. The man sat up on his knees, eyes glowing, arms spread apart, and his canines fully exposed.

The gaping hole in his chest suddenly started filling in with pure energy. The augments saw this and realized that Aizen either turned his body into energy to heal himself, or his inner organs were entirely replaced with energy. The sooner would mean that sonic weapons would no longer be effective.

Seeing that their enemy was beginning to regenerate, they took preemptive action.

"**FIRE!"**

Sonic weapons pounded Aizen again, but this time Aizen managed to heal himself, and slowly stand to his feet. Powering his hands with focused reiatsu, Aizen fired an energy beam across the roof tops of the buildings the bunker suits stood on top of.

The augments were knocked over the edge, where they fell from 7 to 10 stories high into solid concrete. Their armor protected them from the brunt of the damage, but many augments were injured or dazed from the fall. Those that weren't knocked off the buildings were hurled back, taking damage to their armor from Aizen's attack.

Aizen smiled.

He felt the new power coursing through him, even greater than before. He felt all but invincible. He had the power to easily end anything and anyone who crossed him without even trying. Aizen opened his eyes, which all the white in his eyes had been replaced with purple, while his retinas turned to pure white. His eyes weren't the only things that changed. He now had white butterfly wings on his back, which somehow managed to only make himself appear more dangerous. His hair had grown out so that it was cascading down his back.

Aizen turned to look at the four enemies that still stood.

Ichigo frowned, still holding the Hogyoku in his hands.

"It's pointless. You'll all easily be defeated at this level of power I've achieved." Aizen stated.

Aizen held open his palm toward the substitute shinigami.

Traitor-turned -loyal shinigami, Gin, tensed, expecting a dangerous attack to come. Instead something else happened. The hogyoku flew out of Ichigo's hand, completely ignoring his attempts to maintain a solid grip. The orb struck Aizen right in the chest and fused to his body. Ichigo and the other shinigami tensed ready, for a fight.

"Even separated, the hogyoku still knows who its master is." Aizen evenly stated.

A handful of the bunker suits recovered from their fall. As they stood, Aizen took notice.

Sonic weapons had no real defense or counter. The only way to be relatively immune was if you lacked inner organs and ears. Sound waves traveled through body armor, cover, and other obscuring objects, making protection null and void. Creatures with larger bodies, and by extension larger organs, could take more sonic trauma but even they would eventually collapse. In Aizen's case, he had managed to heal himself while he was being hit with the various sound cannons. His organs healed themselves just as fast as the sound waves could rupture them. While it was effective, the pain was agonizing as you constantly felt your organs fail, burst, and heal just to experience it all over. His evolved form could take that trauma easier, but he had no desire to experience that feeling once more.

Aizen shunpo'd toward the nearest bunker suit.

The augment reacted as fast it could, but his suit hindered his movements due to the sheer weight. He was helpless as Aizen brought his sword down and split his head in half, the nigh-impenetrable armor parting like butter. Aizen cut his way through two more of the augments who attempted to try and fire at him again.

Zaraki charged Aizen from behind, Unohana following behind with her sword poised.

Aizen watched as the mad captain recklessly came at him, glowing with, comparatively feeble, yellow reiatsu. Aizen blocked his sword swing with ease, taking little note of the small earthquake their sword clash caused. Aizen pushed the captain's sword away and made a vertical slash across Zaraki's chest. The battle crazed captain brought his sword up to block.

Blood splattered across the ground.

Zaraki's sword was cleaved in half in the attempt. Aizen slashed the captain deeply from shoulder to hip, sending him flying through a nearby car.

Captain Unohana shunpo'd directly behind Aizen.

She swung with all the power she could muster. Aizen almost laughed when he caught the sword in his hand. He gifted her with the same slash he gave Kempachi, sending her into the ground.

Neither of the two got back up.

Aizen grunted in pain when he felt himself get hit by a pair of sonic cannons. He could feel his insides spasm as the sound amps pumped through his being. He quickly spotted his assailants. 2 bunker suits stood on top of a building he had damaged in his previous attack toward them. He shunpo'd directly in between the two augments. The helmet cameras on the side of their helmets picked up his presence immediately. The two pivoted on their heel to try and shoot Aizen at point blank range.

_*SWISH* *SWISH*_

The pair of augments both fell to the ground screaming in agony, one having his arm and part of his chest loped off, the other having his stomach cut open. They both fainted, and would eventually die from blood loss.

Aizen looked down and saw that the rest of the bunker suits were either knocked out cold by the fall or in full retreat. He smirked as he saw the humans flee before him. Despite what many believed, he had some slight respect for humanity, if for nothing else than their ability to realize when they were outmatched. He had to literally defeat every shinigami he encountered, and no matter how many he cut down or defeated, they still came at him, believing that they actually stood a reasonable chance at defeating him.

Aizen frowned as he looked to the sky.

Two large human gunships were flying across his field of vision. Both were the same kind, or similar ships to the one the Meta had shot down earlier. They were flying straight past him, which meant they must be retreating with the rest of the PWCD's forces. For some reason however, he felt a need to be concerned about them. The two gunships started lazily banking to the side. Aizen watched as the weapons on the side of gunships pointed towards him. With a start, Aizen realized that they weren't flying away but circling around for a bombing run. The pair of Lockheed AC-130 gunships opened fire.

2 sets of Howitzer cannons, Bofors guns, and miniguns, tore into Aizen's position.

xxXxx

Author's Note: Well I just got done watching the 'Kampfer' series yesterday.

And it was horrible. Even more so than Dog Days.

Dog Days could say that as a nation of pacifist and fake soldiers that don't do any actual killing, they have a legit reason why no actual deaths occur during the series. The main plot of that story was that the princess, now queen, of the dog people was fated to die in a set amount of time, but it wasn't stated exactly how she would die or who would do it. Then that teenager who was kidnapped from home was fated to also die, by equally mysterious circumstances. The princess, now queen, of the cat people decides the best way to avoid that problem is by attacking them for their super valuable, irreplaceable, royal weapon. Don't ask how she came to that conclusion, because that's a cluster-fuck of a plot in of itself.

Kampfer is similar to Highschool of the Dead in that it somehow manages to sexualize any given situation, no matter how serious it is. Unlike HOTD however, NO ONE DIES, which is a really big deal in an anime about tournament fighting to the death. Half of the way through the story, the red and blue teams are so friendly with each other that the moderators have to make a white team to make anyone fight. The Kampfers are fighting because of a 'proxy war' where reds and blues in a different galaxy fight for another reason entirely. So if the white teams attack both the reds and blues, then what's the point of ANYONE fighting now? More importantly, aliens that literally live galaxies away are making humans fight in their place because they're too scared/lazy to resolve their own issues. The humans who are involved consented to this treatment in the first place…why? Not like the moderators ever did anything to imply they can enforce their own rules personally.

I can't even bring myself to drop the Skulltaker in the Kampfer universe because the real people in need of violent decapitation are on the other side of the universe, placing bets on which one of their teenage human girls will win the fight. Writing about a bunch of helpless Japanese girls pointlessly hurling attacks at a daemon that gets better fights during a walk through his local neighborhood would be pointless. It would just make me feel like the African American version of Hitler.

I have no such reservations about Dog Days, however. Expect them to get a daemon visit real soon.

Anyways, I have a football camp coming up that will go on from Wednesday to Saturday from 7:00 in the morning to like 8:00 in the evening. Needless to say, I will be too concerned with eating and sleeping in my spare time to think about writing. So for the next 4 days, I'll be on a haitus. I'll be occupied for the next 2 or 3 days after that furiously typing to get up a new chapter for "The Harrowing".

So do not lose faith! This is the first story I wrote that I never flat out ran out of ideas for, or felt like I was doing an extra chore to update. I'll be damned if I don't at least finish it.

I'm also aware that Ichigo does not have the ability to change reiatsu into pure brute strength. I was made aware of that, the day of, or after that chapter was posted. I considered fixing it, but people had to actually review my story to alert me to that. Good reviews, bad reviews, all the same, still prove that people are actually reading this and somewhat enjoying it, seeing as many of these reviews are made while they were on the latest out of 30+ plus chapters. The knowledge that serious bleach fans have read this far and not threatened to burn down my house yet, makes me glad to know I'm doing something right. Not quite sure what it is yet.

Still, every so often I'll read my own story and grow ashamed of myself at certain parts I could've done better or should not have done at all. Now I understand why some of my favorite authors will take down stories to redo, that I thought were done perfectly fine the first time. I considered doing this, but realized that I'd sooner shoot myself than re-type a story that's well past the 100,000 word mark just because there are a lot of flaws I could pick out. Maybe as a reader, those holes aren't as bad because you might think they go unexplained for plot associated reasons. As the author, I know for a fact that I completely overlooked it and had to explain it away by creating some sort of weak explanation later.

I'll come back to certain places and chapters for a patch up job, but that'll be when I've completed the story and have the time to do so without being placed on a self-imposed timeframe.

Well, that ends this current session of mindless rambling. If you've read this far, then find a cookie or something, and pretend I gave it to you, because I'm impressed.

See you guys later.


	33. Wargames

Author's note: FUUUUUCK! Don't ask how, but my microsoft word got uninstalled. Now I can't type out a chapter. The only reason I got this out was because I decided to put up the half chapter I already typed up before hand, and see if I could finish writing it in the editing section (which doesn't correct typos). If you're wondering why I can't just re-install it, the cheepest, most crapiest version of microsoft word (2003 version I think) cost about $100 dollars to install. I was using the $300 dollar version.

Considering how heavily computer based my school assignments are getting, I may be able to pester my dad into installing a new version of microsoft word, but it certainly won't be soon. It really sucks because, lately, I've been having tons of ideas, just nowhere to put them.

Well since this'll be my last chapter for a good while (aka, couple months) , I can't be half assed about it.

Hmm, I've been looking back on this story and realized that this whole 'War in Japan' has taken up almost half the length of the entire story. I must've gotten too carried away writing fight scene after scene, with a tiny bit of actual story telling sprinkled here and there. I'll have to wrap this up. Good thing for me, I've already reached the ending point for this Bleach Arc.

I've also decided that I won't end this story at the ending of the 'Winter War'. I'm really tempted to tell how the story is going to continue, with new anime getting hog tied in, but that would be spoiling my own story, which I notice I did a few times in some of my author's notes. I may make completely separate fanfictions about more 'minor' situations the PWCD was handling. For example: them tripping over the 'Sekirei Plan' and intervening on account of the number of human rights laws it breaks on just the Ashikabi's part, much less the Sekirei themselves. Or maybe some sort of secret black magic on the organization's part, sucking a few PWCD soldiers into the Claymore verse. Maybe even the PWCD tripping over the Magus Association. The amount of sick things they do to people will definitley piss off more then a few guys in the PWCD top brass.

As well, I may come off as hating anime. I do tend to start bashing anime over every flaw in my rants, but those are usually ones that I hated before, for some reason or another. What I DO hate is anime that completely ignore real world factors. I don't mean minor ones like 'people shouldn't be able to stay airborne that long'. I mean ones like 'Those things are tearing up the entire city in their so called 'fight'! Where the hell is the military? The National Guard? Hell, the S.W.A.T. teams?' Call me pro-human, but while I didn't believe most of the things that threaten humanity in anime would REALLY be a threat in real life, they can at least try to make humanity look like they're fighting back. Adolescent boys and girls somehow succeeding where advanced armies and trained soldiers fail, time and time again, is such a huge cliché in anime. I didn't really care that much the first time I saw it…. then it began appearing in EVERY action based anime I watched (Sekirei, Code Geass, Bleach, Death Note, Rosario Vampire, Gundam, Fate/Stay Night, and even Deadman Wonderland show case this).

…Dammit, I'm doing it again.

Oh and by the way, I happened to trip over a youtube video called "PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 9!". I kid you not; there was a part in the video that they recorded a guy firing a bullet to the right of some sort of samurai-ish guy's body. The samurai in question, drew his sword and managed to hit the bullet with it, knocking it off course. This wasn't an action movie scene, it was an episode of mythbusters, with tripod cameras and slow motion viewing. The knowledge that people in real life can deflect bullets, even if they don't aim the gun directly at you, has made me hyped. The guy looks like he's been spending his whole life learning the skills necessary to do that, but it was badass none the less.

Hmm, I guess you learn something new everyday.

Well anyway, here's the next chapter in my long delayed story. Enjoy!

xxXxx

**Wargames**

* * *

The Meta observed from less than a block away, quietly trying to heal its wounds as it observed.

Aizen was being attacked by two Lockheed AC-130 gunships. While the damage output of not one, but two such war machines was something to be feared, it wasn't nearly enough to hurt Aizen. The Meta watched as Aizen blew away the smoke with his reiatsu, revealing himself to be unharmed while the building he was standing on was on the verge of collapsing.

The pair of warships ascended higher into the sky, but still kept their guns pointed in the general direction Aizen was in.

Aizen raised his sword to knock the plains out the sky.

"BANKAI!"

The butterfly king lazily looked over his shoulder at Ichigo. He was now wearing his hollow mask, as well as had his sword transform from a meat cleaver to a black katana with a chain on the end.

"GETUSGA TENSHOU!"

Aizen sighed as he watched the child launch a red shockwave of energy at him. As he watched this, he only barely noticed a howitzer shell impact into one of his wings. When the artillery round exploded on impact, Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou engulfed Aizen immediately after. The gunpowder explosion had something of a chemical effect on the reiatsu based attack, causing Ichigo's shockwave to spontaneously combust. Aizen's eyes widdened in surprise as he felt himself suddenly get engulfed in a far larger explosion than he initially anticipated. The man in question was hurled through the sky briefly before managing to skid to a stop.

This piqued the Meta's interest.

Aizen didn't seem to be hurt or particularly shell shocked, just surprised.

Ichigo and Gin blinked and looked at each other, silently asking each other 'Did that really just happen?'

"Impressive."

The two flinched in surprise as they saw a colossal human standing directly behind them.

He was obviously an augment, which was made evident by the fact he was well over 7 feet tall and clad in advanced armor. Curiously enough, he wore a trench coat over his armor, assumedly to conceal weapons. With this being a warzone however, what was the point of hiding your weapons?

"Who are you?" Ichigo asked.

The augment in question brought up the back of his armored glove, as if he was reading a watch, and pressed some sort of button on it. Without warning, the augment seemingly faded from existence, leaving an odd heat wave in his place. A distorted voice began speaking, muffled and amplified at the same time, by his helmet.

"Commander Wesker. Acting field commander of all the present PWCD commandos at this time. Me and my men are here to offer you covert aid against the target: Aizen Sosuke."

"No offense" Gin began. "We've been on the receiving end of human weapons enough to know you aren't pushovers. However, I just don't think you're of any use here. Technology is no substitute for spiritual energy."

"Oh really?" The hidden augment began. "If that were true, the remaining espada wouldn't be under our captivity right now, being treated for radiation poisoning, third degree burns, and multiple levels of concussions." Gin's and Ichigo's eyes widened at the news. They had both seen the detonation from earlier that caused the mushroom cloud. Ichigo didn't think they'd actually fire real live nuclear bombs in a city! "Ignoring that though, I have a plan to eliminate Aizen once and for all."

Ichigo looked up to the sky at Aizen.

It seemed the madman was firing energy beams into the clouds that the pair of AC-130 gunships were using for cover. The gunships were returning fire based on the places Aizen shot his beams from. Aizen in turn, fired where he saw projectiles cutting through the clouds themselves. It seemed like a giant game of marco polo to him. Occasionally, a Jet squadron would fly by and fire missiles and carpet bombs at Aizen, who would respond by evading them or shooting them down if he could. The PWCD air force wasn't able to get enough of their shots through Aizen's defense to cause lethal damage, but they were at least keeping him off balance. Ichigo silently thanked God for the concept of air supremacy, even if his shinigami training beat nearly all thoughts of conventional fighting out of his head.

"So what's this plan?" Ichigo asked, a little put off. He felt weird talking to someone that was invisible. He felt self-conscious that someone might walk by and call him weird or something, despite the circumstances of the situation.

"Simple. A manticore mobile missile defense system has just entered the city outskirts. We're using local UAV's to constantly keep track of Aizen's position. This way, all of our guided ordinance and artillery can fire without worry of missing the target." Wesker evenly stated.

"That would've been handy to have when all the shinigami captains and vizards were still able to fight!" Ichigo growled.

"We would've run the risk of friendly fire. An anti-tank missile can kill an arrancar in a single hit, and they have natural armor in adition to reiatsu protection. What do you think such a weapon would do a shinigami, who is essentially a human with a sentient sword and high levels of reiatsu?" The invisible man continued on. "The manticore fires missiles designed to hunt down jets, but we've modified the payload. All the missiles are now equipped with the smallest warheads we could design for these kind o-"

"WARHEADS! You're gonna blow the entire city sky high!" Ichigo blew up. There were countless injured and stranded people in the city. The fighting having gone from Youkai against humans, and then shinigami, and then hollows and arrancar, there were easily tens of thousands that were getting caught up in fights they had no desire to be a part of.

Nuking the entire place would insure that everyone was sent packing.

Gin just stood there, feeling stupid. He didn't understand a word of all this, being born and raised in the Soul Society. Judging from the way the human and substitute shinigami were talking, they were apparently planning on bringing in some of the more dangerous weapons in the human arsenal. He hoped whatever these 'warheads' were, they'd defeat Aizen, because right now they were running out of options.

"Weak warheads, shinigami. Not even half as powerful as the tactical nuke we fired at those espada earlier. We noticed that when Gin blew open Aizen's chest, he regenerated himself, rather than reconstructing his body like we first thought."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gin asked.

"It means that if we destroy any of his organs completely, they won't be able regenerate back, because there won't be anything left to regenerate from. Had your aim been a little more to the left, you would've destroyed his lungs entirely and suffocated him to death."

Wesker began walking into an ally, exaggerating his footsteps so that the other two knew to follow him.

"The plan is for us to hit Aizen with those warheads. They likely won't kill him, but they'll at least cause some cellular damage and radiation poisoning. When the attack is done, we'll need you two to rush him. If you get the chance, destroy his brain. That'll certainly take him out the fight. Even if it regenerates back, his original brain cells will be gone and he'll have lost all his memories and basic motor functions. He won't have the knowledge necessary to use his powers, or function beyond the capabilities of a new born child. Aim for his organs. If you were to destroy even the minor ones, they also won't regenerate. He'd be too sluggish from the lack of innards to defend as well from the next volley of missiles."

"So your genius plan is hoping your bombs stun him long enough for us to start amputating him, organ by organ." Gin flatly stated, clearly not impressed with the idea. "You do realize a number of things could go wrong from that plan, like him shooting down the warheads for instance."

This statement was punctuated when a passing jet was clipped by Aizen's energy beam, disrupting its flight pattern. The vehicle went sputtering off in the distance until a load explosion echoed, signifying the plane's demise.

Unperturbed by the event, Wesker pressed on with his imprompt strategy session.

"We're going to mask the warhead in between multiple decoy missiles."

"Where are the decoy's going to come from?" Ichigo asked, scanning the surrounding area to make sure Aizen was still busy.

As he said this, a squadron of 5 jets flew overhead in perfect sync. 5 anti-tank missiles streaked out from their underbellies, just before each of the 5 jets all banked upward and angled in different directions, their movements perfectly synced. Aizen furiously fired at the missiles, but apparently a missile or three got through, if Aizen's pained yell was any indication.

"Nevermind." Ichigo stated, his face faulting.

"Alright, are you both clear?" Wesker asked. Gin and Ichigo both looked at each other, and then back at the spot Wesker's voice had come from. They both nodded once. "Good. I'll start coordinating the attacks."

Before he had a chance to move away, Ichigo called out to him. "So why were you invisible this whole time anyway?"

"I have to paint Aizen with a marker light so that the manticore knows where to shoot. The plan is likely to fall through if Aizen spots me before I can get a lock. As such, cloaking is the best solution." Wesker said this in his usual voice, but there was a faint hit of irritation to it.

"But why did you have to use it the entire time we wer-UMPH!" Gin clamped his hand over Ichigo's mouth, to which the boy in question wasn't very receptive to.

"Can we just get this suicide mission over with?" Gin tiredly stated, with a frown on his face.

"Let's get to it." There was a sound of boots banging against the walls, as Wesker invisibly parquored up the adjacent building.

Gin and Ichigo just stood there, not entirely clear on what they were supposed to be doing at this time. From what they gathered, they should just stand there and hide until Aizen blew up. Wesker called down to them from the roof of the building.

"When you hear what sounds like the world ending, that's your signal to attack!"

Both the shinigami and substitute shinigami frowned in despair, not liking how that was phrased one bit.

xxXxx

* * *

American and Chinese forces collaborated together in their campaign across japan.

Both had success in their initial objectives. They both had successfully established footholds, through which they could safely ferry in aditional forces and equipment. Both had taken, and interrogated enough prisoners to have a vague idea of what was going on. Both had got a good feel out for their enemy's capabilities, which they weren't particularly impressed with. The monsters seemed to think if they charged in screaming, then their superior powers and capabilities would see them through the fight. The humans responded to this belief by simply placing shots down range until the particular abominations they were aiming at stopped moving.

After quite a few instances of monsters being gunned down in the open, they started to adapt to the humans by hiding within buildings, and ambushing them as they advanced deeper into the cities. When the fighting became more claustrophobic, things started to swing into the youkai's favor. While the marines followed the typical house clearing manuevers, they never took into account that many monsters could take a bullet or two, and keep going. After numerous reports of men being slaughtered indoors, or in any general close quarters scenario, the speedy advance through Japan grinded to a slow halt. It wasn't unusual to see marines sending countless amounts of hand grenades, RPG's, and flashbangs before they even set foot into a building. Even then, men covered from head to toe in bomb suits, armed with A-12 automatic shotguns were practically forced to be the pointmen in all close encounter scenarios.

The chinese and Americans had begun a joint operation in the wake of this issue.

This entire invasion of Japan had been a spur of the moment thing. Japan had been suprised attacked by non-humans, with live footage of monstrosities openly murdering civilians for their own enjoyment. It was clear as day to the world that humanity would not stand by idly, as their own were murdered en mass. Whoever was avaliable at the time was dispatched, without a proper reading of the situation, or any effective intel being gathered. They simply saw an enemy, and they tripped over themselves for a chance to shoot at it.

Now the fighting had slowed down to a series of skirmishes across the country, between human military personnel and fairy tale aligned youkai. Eagerly, both commanders of their respective countries took to developing a battle strategy, peiceing together all the reports they had accumulated in their initial push into the country of Japan.

It wasn't pretty to say the least.

Casulties were in the thousands, mostly from the soldier's inability to properly contend with many monsters in close quarters fighting. The numerous plant monsters didn't have any vulnerable areas to aim for, which made spraying them with bullets the only feasible option. Seeing as they were the most numerous monster type, as well as the only kind with no aparent sense of self-preservation, large amounts of ammo were dumped simply keeping them at arms length. The larger youkai generally took nothing short of direct hits with grenade launchers to down, or focused fire from several different men. These creatures were as large as two story buildings at times, and had high tolerances for pain, making them difficult for most ground forces to deal with, who didn't have any armored or aerial support on hand. Most prodominate was a few of the craftier monster's ability to cloak themselves as humans, and play as surviving civilians to be rescued. After numerous incidents of sabotage and friendly fire, a recent report that nearly all of the civilians had already been moved to safety was given to them by the PWCD forces, who were focusing their efforts on regrouping at the moment. After that reached the commander's ears, all men were on standing orders to shoot or subdue all non-military personnel they found. Under no circumstances were they to bring back any more civilians until the civilians in question were interrogated.

These situations were starting to escalate as reports came in of unstoppable humaniods with impossible feats of strength and speed. Unlike the other monsters, they were eerily similar to humans in their monster forms, making them hard to identify before they attacked.

Both commanders agreed this was spiraling toward disaster. As it stood, they were fighting a war of attrition, rather than a fight of superior tactics and weaponry. As well, there was a slight worry of the men wondering who was truly friend or foe, when monsters could easily slip on military fatigues and stand among them as fellow soldiers.

It was then that the american commander got an idea.

Drones.

The U.S. employed combat drones as mobile, unmanned machine gun nests, and weapon platforms. They were often used in situations that would assuredly be hazardous to any humans who attempted the same tasks. Such things included scanning buildings that may be rigged with traps and explosives, acting as skirmishers to test fortified positions, and so on.

In this situation, they'd be perfect.

As of this moment, dozens of SWORDS drones were being flown in from the U.S. with every weapon from Light machine guns, to automatic grenade launchers, to missile launchers.

In addition to swords, multiple predator drones were on their way to Japan. Unmanned aerial vehicles, armed with jet missiles, controlled by someone in a fortified base on the other side of the world. They were inexpensive to make, never held concern for being shot down and retrieveing the pilot, and most of all, were very precise in their attacks.

Combat drones as a whole, had only seen use against terrorist in the middle east. They were never deployed during full blown war, and the majority of drones were still very much in their testing phases.

Now, as dozens of Predator and SWORD drones were en route, they would get their time to shine. It remained to be seen how armed robots would fair against the likes of monsters.

xxXxx

* * *

Author's Note: For those that have trouble believeing Aizen would be hurt by a missile, consider the other people in bleach.

Apparently steel is thick enough to stop a zanpakotou strike, if the words of dozens of arrancar are to be believed. Tanks are made of a variety of metals, depending on the design and origin of the tank, but steel is usually a given. jet missiles are designed expressly to punch through several inches of said steel, and _then_ detonate, blowing open the entire tank. Missiles penetrate and then blow up, rather then blow up on contact like people think. That's why missiles can off arrancar so easily. They were designed for destroying targets several times more armored then the most powerful heirro.

Aizen is a bit too sturdy for a single missile to kill him however.

To scale things, Imagine a pen jabbing your arm and then blowing up like a roman candle. That's what every missile equates to with Aizen, roughly. Not very deadly, but it hurts like hell.

Anyway's, have a nice day and see you in a bit.


	34. Full Circle

Author's note: I'M BACK!

I know it's been several months since my last update. I apologize for the long haitus. For the past few months I've gone to school, went to football practice after school, came home to do homework, and went to sleep. Assuming the coach lets us out early, I didn't come home until it was around 7:40. But now here's the reason I have the time on my hands to start back writing again. I QUITE THE FOOTBALL TEAM! No longer do I have to stay at school 3 and a half hours longer than my peers. No longer do I have to run around the school, getting my teachers to fill out athletic progress reports in order to determine if I'm eligible to play (not that my grades were ever an issue). I can drive straight home after school, due my meager amount of homework, and due what I want for the rest of the day!

...I never realized how depressing it was to have this much free time until now.

Well regardless, it's high time I finally put this story arc down for good. I would've posted up the next chapter for "The Harrowing" by now, but even though I've gotten quite a lot of writing done, I've come down with a nasty case of writers block. Hopefully, that won't be the case here.

On a side note: I heavily recommend you all to check out the anime/manga 'Freezing'. As a forewarning it's an 'ichi' anime (can't remebered how 'ichi' is really spelt), which means that if you're like me and don't get off on cartoon images than a lot of fight scenes can get rather annoying and illogical, (like how cuts and punches seem to do 3 times as much damage to clothing as they do to flesh). Once you get past that though, it's actually pretty decent. The situation humanity is in _almost_ makes the creation of pre-adolescent super soldiers a possibility.

These things called 'Nova' are causing a massive ruckus. They just show up out of nowhere, laugh at modern day military weaponry (which seems to be a trend for anime nowadays), slaughter every living thing in sight, _deliberately_ move into populated areas and self destruct. I think it's safe to say they were trained by Muslim jihadists. They always appear randomly around the world, every couple of years, starting around 10 or 20 years ago. In order to stop them from royally f*cking up humanity in their suicide attacks, the military use 'stigmata' (some kind of Nova tissue) and implant it into girls with a high compatibility rate for the stuff. For girls, these make Pandora (super human ninjas that can create weapons at will from thin air). For guys, these make Limiters (normal teenagers, but with the ability to 'freeze' people who get in a certain range. Hence the title 'Freezing'). Don't ask why gender makes such a radical difference in powers. Pandoras are the only things that can actually kill a Nova, while limiters are the only people that can get a Pandora close enough to actually fight it (by countering the freezing field Nova cause). Because Limiters can only use their powers after doing a 'baptism' with a Pandora, they're required to form pairs for graduation, which more often than not leads to the Pandora and Limiter getting romanticly involved (God forbid a roman catholic finds out about this show).

The reason I like it is because it's pretty air tight in its logic. Military officials don't send Pandora and Limiters against the Nova because they think it's a legitimately good idea to tell kids to go fight a war. They do it because there quite literally is no other alternative. Nova armor is thick enough to survive any sort of ordinance short of a tactical nuke, and if they do that then they may as well just let the Nova blow itself up and save them the effort. As such, they have 'carnivals' every year so that by the time Pandora become seniors in their school/training facility, they've already gotten bloodied enough to know what to expect in a life or death battle. Even then, when someone dies in front of them, they actually get shell shocked and react like how teens would be expected to react. Whereas most anime like this would have a teenage girl casually committing man slaughter in the most extravagant way possible while reciting a well-practiced monologue, this story actually tries to keep a sense of legitimacy (as in, if we were placed in this situation, they want you to believe this may be the way things really play out). It isn't perfect, but it's at least somewhat down to earth.

Anyhow, enough advertising. On with the story.

xxXxx

* * *

**Full Circle**

"Painting target. Lock on and wait for my go ahead."

Wesker stood very still as he aimed a marker light at Aizen. The longer he stayed alive, the more lives that would be lost. The PWCD had thrown every last potentially effective soldier, weapon, and tactic they could and all it amounted to were thousands of casualties and loses. The fact they had approved the use of nuclear weapons on a single person spoke volumes about how badly the top brass wanted this man dead. Not even the force of resurrected Espada level arrancar had warranted this much attention.

Aizen himself was busy fighting of a full flight of F-22 raptors.

No matter how powerful the man became, those jets were constantly booking at a super-cruise speed of mach 2.3. In other words, they raptors were constantly moving at over twice the speed of sound, which a sonido or shunpo could only go just as fast as the speed of sound or a tiny bit faster. While moving this fast, they were still fully capable of maneuvering at such low altitude, opening fire, and most importantly steering clear from each others flight paths. Aizen could barely track a single jet long enough to estimate where to shoot, much less do so while being fired upon by dozens of similar jets. The only kills Aizen could manage was by simply saturating an area with his energy beams and powerful reiatsu, hoping one of the many jets flew into the field of fire or got slammed into the earth for flying so close. After losing 3 of their squadron mates to such fates, the raptors made expressly sure to keep out of his maximum distance. While he poured shots into targets that where almost a hundred miles away, the jets simply cruised by and fired off a tracking missile or two.

It was a prime example of inability to hit versus inability to hurt. Aizen was forced to endure an on-slot of anti-tank missiles, each one succeeding in blasting Aizen several yards back, or disorienting him. Besides that though, nothing they threw at him could keep him down for any extended period of time. The situation was made worse by the fact that each Raptor only carried 6 AIM-120 AMRAM missiles. While normally plenty of ammunition for a fighter jet to have in any combat situation, they were fighting a battle of attrition, which no jet was ever intended to be used in. Most of the F-22's were down to their last 2 or 3 missiles and in need of more fuel, while Aizen was seemingly no worse for wear. The jets forced the madman to keep his attention on them, as they could track and fire on his reiatsu signature anywhere in the city. While this kept him off balance, they weren't succeeding in causing any serious injury

"Target locked. All friendlies clear the area." A voice said over the COM links.

Wesker smirked to himself as he watched the flight of F-22's brake off from the fight, all of them leaving in groups. Aizen was baffled by the sudden disengagement of the jets. They had been repeatedly striking him with blows hard enough to force him back. It was only due to the hogyoku's high speed regeneration that he hadn't died to his own rib puncturing his lung. He couldn't hit the damned things, and yet they were too weak to kill him. Aizen of all people realized the value of a technique that could stalemate an opponent if it couldn't beat them, especially at the point in power he's risen to. Why did the humans finally decide the break that stalemate by fleeing?

'Perhaps they've realized they're powerless to stop me.' Aizen guessed.

xxXxx

December 26th, Japan, Karakura Outskirts

Several dozen miles away, 3 MEADS (Medium Extended Air Defense System) rolled onto the edge of Karakura city, being trailed by a 4th vehicle. On it's side, spray painted in white, was the word 'Manticore'. It was identical to the MEADS in design, but it's payload was obviously different. The MEADS were armed with IRIS-T missiles that could serve as either artillery, or counters to nuclear weapons. This vehicle didn't carry a box shaped object filled with missiles, but rather 4 individual missiles sitting on an oddly shaped platform. At the top of the platform was a translucent bowling ball shaped object, with a camera lens on the inside. Once fired, the missiles would follow a pre-estimated fight path that the bowling ball shaped camera set. From there, the missile would break off into 4 separate warheads that would each maintain there flight path to the target. Used in conjunction with the the IRIS-T missiles the MEADS fired, and devastation wouldn't begin to cover the destructive potential.

Wesker heard a single order being given across the COM link.

"Fire."

At once, each of the MEADS fired off a single missile. The Manticore waited for 2 seconds and then fired off one of its own missiles. A horrible screech filled the air as the missiles shot straight into the sky, farther than even the augmented eye could see and leaving 4 smoke trails in their wake. All activity in the city immediately halted as the sound of more incoming bombs filled the air. Unlike the other petty carpet bombs, and fire-and-forget missiles that had been used, the ones being fired now weren't at all designed for inter city conflicts. That much could be determined by the sound alone. They weren't meant for taking out specific concentrations or enemy positions.

These bombs were specifically designed to wipe out entire armies in a single shot.

xxXxx

Aizen looked up into the sky and could only blanch as he saw not one but FOUR massive missiles, each one as long as a car. As the missiles cut through the clouds and down toward him, Aizen couldn't help but compare the sight to the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse all coming to destroy the world and its inhabitants. With all due haste, the madman raised his hand and began to fire at the streaking missiles. Unfortuneatley for him, even though the missiles seemed to be right in front of him, they were actually several thousand miles away, far out off Aizen range to shoot at. However, they quickly began closing the distance to the intended target. The missile farthest to the back broke off into separate pieces, 4 smaller missiles shooting out of the pieces and speeding toward Aizen even faster than the other 3 missiles were.

The Butterfly King raised both his hands and began pumping out as many shots he possibly could at the 4, now 7 approaching missiles. As the explosives closed the distance, Aizen started missing by less and less large a margin. Beams missing that were missing their mark by miles, rapidly decreased to missing by only a couple dozen meters.

In a stroke of either luck or statistics, one of Aizen's beams struck true and took out one IRIS-T missiles in a direct hit. The bomb blew up in the air, right next to the others. However it mattered little, as the IRIS-T missiles were primarily meant to be decoys for the 4 nuclear warheads. If they stacked on extra damage to what the warheads did, then that was only a bonus. The 6 other missiles sped on, completely outrunning the premature explosion at their current speed.

Aizen realized a lost cause when he saw one. The missiles were now only seconds away from making contact, and moving far faster than even he could reliably track. Aizen focused all his reiatsu around him into a personal force field. If the smaller missiles were able to faze him in any way, than these larger ones may actually wound or even kill him. He didn't see a point to taking an unnecessary risk.

With that, he strengthened his force field as best as he could and covered his eyes.

xxXxx

Ichigo couldn't help but reflect on Wesker's words beforehand.

_"When you hear what sounds like the world ending, that's your signal to attack!"_

…...**...BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOMMM!**

Ichigo and Gin could only stand there with their mouth's open as a flaming mushroom cloud formed in the distance. Their stupor only lasted for milliseconds as the explosive shock-wave washed over them, rattling the ground beneath their feet, and driving some air out of their chests from the impact. Ichigo drove Zangetsu into the ground to steady himself while full sized cars were lifted off the ground and tossed down the street. Gin's shoes lost traction and he went flying back, smashing through the front window of a building.

xxXxx

Wesker was forced to punch a hole into the concrete ground so that the force of the shock-wave didn't knock him off the roof. A small dust storm blew into his face, making him thankful for the invention of helmets. A second later, he realized that the air blowing around him was likely contaminated with low levels of radiation now. He was again silently thankful for the idea of full body armor and helmets with built in air filters.

It was right then that he realized that the two shinigami didn't have either of those going their way.

...And he had ordered them to go running into the center of the radiation stuffed mushroom cloud the moment after it struck.

_'Shit_.'

xxXxx

* * *

Deep in the underground PWCD base, the entire complex began rumble lightly.

Everyone in the base made surprised noises as they were all thrown off balance. The only people who didn't falter in their steps were the full armored augments and the present arrancar and hollows. Everyone went silent as they felt the disturbance.

The HSF commander came on the intercom.

"To all PWCD personnel residing in the base, what you just felt was the detonation of a nuclear warhead going off several hundred miles away. The situation of Karakura has escalated to the point that we've been cleared to use nuclear weaponry. All future deployments to the city are being placed on standby until further notice. That is all."

….

"Well shit." Grimmjow huffed.

Most of the incarcerated arrancar had been placed inside a single large room, with the exception of Ulquiorra, who was receiving medical attention elsewhere. Doctors were distributing cures to radiation poisoning to the arrancar, as well as seeing to any broken bones, concussions, and other health problems they were experiencing. Of course, they were under the supervision of the best team of augments that were on hand; Grave Team. There were 8 additional augment squads residing in the base, the majority having been moved there after Aizen had proven to strong to be traditionally dealt with.

In addition to security, the moment they entered the facility, they had their hollow holes strapped with strange devices. The arrancar were informed that if their power level rose past a certain point, the circular black object over their hollow holes would detonate a C4 explosion. Since the insides of hollow holes weren't protected by hierros, a conventional explosion directly inside them would blast apart every single organ they had. This was all explicitly explained to the evolved hollows after they had all been fastened with the high explosives. The arrancar could easily identify the satisfaction in the augment's voice as he said this. Arrancar needed to have their reiatsu up to a certain level to maintain the power of their hierros. If their reiatsu levels remained as low as the device in their hollow holes demanded, then they could just as easily die to any gunshot wound as they could to the C4. They were already weakened enough that normal bullets could kill them, but now they would have to remain in that state long after their powers returned.

When asked why Cirucci, Nel, and the other hollows in the facility weren't wearing those devices, themselves, the augment replied that those in question had not only proved their loyalty, but offered to go to the front-lines to fight for the PWCD. They were denied, but the President was impressed by their strong desire enough to have them sanctioned of any protocols regarding the arrancar species, as well as cleared for participation in any operations that could use their skill sets.

Any future argument was countered when the demolitions expert of Grave team, Jarvis, drew a hand gun on the nay-Sayers.

Now Harribel found herself in the detestable position of extending her arm out, as a human doctor rubbed her bicep with an alcohol dipped cotton ball, preparing to be injected with a needle. When the human came near her with the long needle, she snatched her arm away and went to her sword sheath, only to deflate when her hand only met air. She growled in irritation as she realized that they made everyone leave their zanpakutos back at Karakura. The alternative was that they would be shot then and there for not complying with demands.

She flinched in the opposite direction when a second, much larger hand landed on her shoulder.

She looked up and came face to face with one of the 5 augments that were overseeing them. He had his helmet off, revealing a Jamaican with long dreads and gray eyes. She looked at him with narrowed eyes, promising death if he didn't remove his hand.

"Calm down woman, it's only medicine for radiation poisoning. You may die if you're left as you are." He spoke calmly.

_'The nerve of him'_ She thought "I'd rather take my chances with probable death, than allow myself to be 'treated', or more accurately _poisoned_ by you." She growled at him, shrugging his hand away like it was diseased.

Rather than back off, get an attitude, or snap back at her like she expected. He kept his voice calm, soothing even.

"If we wanted to poison you, we'd have left you as you are. Instead, we have our best doctors and medics working to help you. Our actions speak louder than our words, wouldn't you agree?" he stated, a tiny bit of his Jamaican accent seeping into his speech.

Harribel glowered at him, trying to discern any sign of dishonesty or treachery in his voice or posture. She could clearly see the assortment of throwing knives strapped across his form. In addition, the pair of handles over his shoulders clearly showed that he had pair of his own swords ready for use, while she had no weapon to defend herself with. Tiburon was several hundred miles away right now, and likely bathing in radiation at the moment.

"Why should I believe anything you have to tell me, human? You're kind thrives on trickery." She barbed.

What the man did next almost made her slap him. He chuckled in her face, as if he was listening to the wild theories of a child.

"Would you like me to be injected by the very same needle, if that calms your nerves?" He offered.

_'Well that rules out the possibility of them trying poison us. Even so, that must mean they're playing at something else.' _Harribel mulled.

Eli watched as the woman in front of him stared at him with those judging eyes. He could see her clearly trying to figure out if he was trying to trick her in a less obvious way. Eli couldn't blame her. He _was_ a member of a black operations organization. Men and women in his job description either spoke very little, or were very good at lying to someone's face. Seeing as he had approached her for conversation, he could easily deduce which of the two she had labeled him as. Assuming that arrancar knew what 'black ops' meant, that is.

The doctor chose now to brake into the conversation, now that his patient was having a starring contest with an augment.

"Well thank you for trying Eli, but if she doesn't want help then there's no point in forcing it on her. I'll see to the others until then." As turned to walk away, a feminine hand reached out and gripped hit sleeve tightly. He turned and saw her practically staring into his soul.

It was a good thing they had refrained from telling the staff just what kind of non-humans these people were, or he would've believed she was doing just that.

"Don't go near my fraccion, _Doctor_, or I'll kill you." Harribel threatened. The doctor gave her a serious look, to respond to her own. He didn't know what a 'fraccion' was, but he simply nodded anyway. She let go of his sleeve and allowed him to go treat the nearest other Arrancar, who was Stark and Lilynette.

Harribel turned when she saw the man in front of her stand up to his full height. She wasn't fazed by his tall frame, considering she was constantly in the presence of giant hollows, and colossally big arrancar all the time.

"We can only help you as much you let us mam." Eli stood up to go.

"Wait." The augment paused, looking at her in curiosity. "Just earlier. What that man said about a nuclear warhead. Was that the same weapon used against us?" She inquired.

Eli looked at her for a moment, gathering his thoughts before responding. "Not completely. From what we were told, you were all hit by a small tactical nuke, . What you just felt was a nuclear warhead, which depending on the yield can be several dozen times, or several hundred times more powerful of an explosion. I only know vaguely about explosions. You should talk to Jarvis on any specifcs." He motioned over to another augment, who was hefting an AA-12 shotgun. With that he made his way back to his squad mates. As he began walking away, he casted one last statement over his shoulder "For your own sake, please accept the vaccination. Nuclear weapons are better known for their long term effects than how big of an explosion they make. Regardless of what you may believe, no one here wants to see you die, especially from just getting sick."

With that, Eli began walking away.

Harribel watched him go, not entirely sure what to make of the surprisingly civil solider. On one hand, she had spent the entirety of yesterday fighting soldiers just like him in a steadily losing battle. Despite that, she had killed, maimed, and injured quite a few of them by herself. Those men were all allies to the soldier she had just spoken to. That alone made gave her ample grounds for suspicions of foul play. On the other hand, seeing how seriously the humans had been talking about this 'radiation poisoning', she assumed it was something that she was better off not ignoring. As she looked around, the other arrancar were begrudgingly accepting the vaccinations. Her guess was that they were at the human's mercy anyway. They had been disarmed, defeated, imprisoned, and had their own powers booby trapped over the course of 2 days. There wasn't much worse the humans could do to them at this point.

Looking over toward her fraccion, she saw them resisting another doctors attempts to give them a vaccination, apparently having followed her lead. Realizing that she had to be their leader now more than ever, she called for their attention. The 3 younger women turned to see their master staring at them with a sturdy gaze. She slowly nodded at them, silently telling them to accept the vaccination.

Knowing that Harribel had their best interest in mind, they calmed down and allowed the Doctor to approach them with his needle.

Harribel casted a look to the augment, 'Eli' as she heard one of the doctors refer to him as. The Jamaican was speaking to an even larger augment, who stood head and shoulders above him. She completely disregarded the other man to zero in on him and him alone. She wasn't quite sure why, but the augment in question gave her an odd feeling. And when someone gave her any reason to be intrigued in them, it usually meant they were trouble. She decided to just go along with the human's wishes for now, but she would find a means of escape somehow, or at least die with dignity.

She'd be sure to keep an eye out for him in the future.

xxXxx

* * *

Author Note: Well not too shabby of a comeback chapter if I do say so myself.

Sorry for the overly long haitus. I've been preoccupied since last chapter. Trying to balance my grades with playing football tends to get tedious after awhile. By the way, thank you all for recommending open office, but DAMN I hate using this. I think Microsoft Word spoiled me. It had the perfect balance of 'helpful' and 'get out of my face'. Open Office strayed past 'helpful' and is stuck way too deep 'get out of my face'. Every time I use the word 'the' it asks if I want to put in 'theDon1023' because I gave a shout out to him earlier for recommending this site. Now it inserts his name whenever I use 'the'. As well, whenever I quote something from fanfiction, the quote always has these weird divider lines going through it, which I have to go through the trouble of deleting. Worst of all for my case, Open office doesn't have a word count, meaning I have to guess by length how many words my story has before moving it to fanfiction..

Then again, Microsoft office is better, but not 100$-300$ better.


	35. Blow of Mercy

Author's note: Well, what's up everybody!

This chapter took me a lot longer to pump out than I thought it would. Maybe it's the laziness. Maybe it's the lack of flowing ideas for how to finally end this arc. Whatever the reason, I know where I want this to go. I know several scenes that I want to write in the future. I also know that no matter what happens, things have been running rather long for awhile.

All this in mind, I'm just going to start typing, with only a vague sense of direction, and see where I end up. I'm satisfied with what I read afterward, everything is great! If not, I'll delete what doesn't work, and have another go.

Now before I start, I'd like to talk about the best military FPS game on the market. No it isn't Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, or Gear of War 3. Yes those games are fun to play, and you can easily get carried away into several hours of none stop playing. They all have fun campaigns and even better multi-player settings. However, they're all mainstream and almost completely uninspired. You could copy and paste a mission from the previous game in the series and dump it into the campaign and, unless you've played the entire series before, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

My opinion for the best shooting experience ever is a game with little replay value. It has an absolutely stunning campaign story, but if you've played it once, there isn't much point in doing it again except to just gun for a different ending. Even then, you only decide your ending of choice on the very last level. You could just skip to the last level and make a different decision. The multi-player is boring and not very special. It looks as bad as it does because it's mediocre in comparison to the best campaign I've seen for a modern day shooter ever.

This game, is 'Spec Ops: The Line'.

Most video games would have you believe that your actions, so long as done with the right intentions, are always justified. You can merrily bomb away at hundreds of scattering soldiers, without the conscious thought of 'hey! There might be average civilians mixed in there!' You can become so good at man-slaughter that you can perform a brutal execution on another human being, and no one will look at you funnily for doing it.

Well here's Spec Ops: The Line, to bring you all back down to earth.

This is a game that reminds you that you're not killing faceless nobodies with no future, but real legitimate people. Not only that, this game goes on to show you a little something called 'PTSD' or 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder'. Many people don't realize that the human psyche is a fragile thing. No man can casually murder dozens, maybe a hundred different people and not be mentally affected in any way. The man you play as in this game starts to suffer from a whole bunch debilitating mental problems while leading his team. As the game goes on, it only gets worst. To make things more interesting, the men under your command can tell that something about you is off, but being the professionals they are, they try to keep quiet about it. Especially when you stare at two dead bodies and say 'we have to choose'. Despite their best attempts however, you can see how steadily depressed and angry they get as the story goes on, just listening to their dialog and watching their actions in the halfway point of the campaign and comparing it to how they were in the beginning. In the first level, me and my team all seemed like best buds ready to take on the world. The very last level, my character and one of my squadmates were constantly responding to each other in an openly passive aggressive manner_. _I literally expected him to turn around and try to kill me at some point. It's made even more depressing, because you know he's the last person you can trust to not shoot you in that entire city.

In one scene, you drop white phosphorous filled mortar shells on an entire company of marines, but that isn't the messed up part. ***SPOILER ALERT*** When you hear about planes and artillery units having to wait for almost hours to get permission to fire, know that there is a good reason for it. As you're having a merry time bombing away at these screaming white images like your god looking through a magnifying glass, the game makes you're last bomb cause a bit of a chain reaction that spreads through a bunch of more screaming white dots. You aren't really thinking about it at first, but you do notice that those particular white figures don't seem to be holding any weapons or military equipment.

Then you and your team begin to actually walk through and survey the havoc you've wreaked on your fellow man. Your walking past charred bodies, burning vehicles, burnt out trenches, and so on. Then that's not even the best part. On your way through, you find out that those marines who you were pelting with high explosives/bio-weapons were actually transporting innocent civilians to a safer location. And it just so happens that you hit those civilians just as badly as the marines, if not worse. At least one marine survived the bombardment long enough to get a few words out. Not a single civilian was left standing.

That image of a woman and her baby, along with hundreds of others, in that charred/petrified state gave me nightmares. You're men start fighting and arguing about whether or not this was your fault, and if this couldn't have been avoided. Your character tells them to keep walking and ignore it, which both you (the _real_ you) and your squadmates share a collective 'WTF' moment. Right after that, the next batch of enemies you face start yelling out about how you're all murderers while trying to shoot you, further rubbing salt in the wound. That's undoubtedly one of the deepest parts of the game, but even after that, it still manages to make you feel even worse somehow in future atrocities you commit for the sake of 'completing the mission'. If you can complete this game, and then go back to playing Modern Warfare 3 or Black Ops without any traces of guilt than you are a strong man.

Now I'm not saying I want every video game I play to remind me what kind of monster I am for killing 30 people with a shotgun just to get an achievement. However, I love how this game does a fa-nominal job of killing that entire "isn't war just fun!" vibe most FPS games give off.

Anyway, here is the chapter.

xxXxx

* * *

**Blow of Mercy**

The entire city, for the first time in days, was silent.

The sky rained ashes and soot all over the city. Despite the previous presence of Humans, Youkai, Hollows, and Shinigami, there wasn't a single trace of activity in the entire city. No birds were whistling, as any animals with a functional survival instinct had fled from the violence days ago, if they weren't already dead. The sun itself was being covered from a massive smog cloud that had settled over the entire city of Karakura, as a result of the non-stop gasoline bombs, artillery strikes, and _multiple_ tactical nuclear strikes.

With the nuclear warhead's detonation, all of the atmosphere in the immediate area was removed. With the lack of air to sustain the fires, even those slowly died away into slight flickers. Radiation had started to set in, spreading across a large chunk of the city,

Karakura was a now a ghost town.

In the very center of the city was a mile wide area of dirt, rubble, and soot. This was where the bomb had first impacted, leaving not a single building in the area still standing. Here, the radiation was at such high concentrations that a man would simply drop dead from radiation exposure, no matter what kind of equipment he had.

Yet a single man did in fact survive, if only barley.

Aizen was lying on the ground, looking a complete mess. His clothing was torn and burnt all over. All four of his wings were charred and chipping off at the edges. Deep charred gouges in his flesh were made, some of which were burning all the way down to the bone and through the muscles in the way. One of which completed burned into his heart, and burned it slightly. Both of the man's retinas were dilated from being so close to such a blinding, white hot flash, his eye lids having been completely burned through.

Despite all this, the Hogyoku was fighting to keep its unconscious master alive.

Aizen had managed to survive purely because his shield had stood up to the direct impact of the nuclear bombardment, and then took away most of the force that would've hit him from the actual detonation. When his defenses finally broke through, he was exposed to the heat of a small sun for several minutes, all the while having intense amounts of radiation be absorbed into his body.

By all rights, he should've been nothing but ashes.

Of course, the hogyoku had managed to save him. It had sensed just how powerful the nuclear detonation had been, and did everything in its power to reinforce Aizen's body to be able to take all the damage and still endure. For all it's effort, the power boost was nowhere near enough for him to come out unscathed.

The hogyoku wasn't a bottomless pit of energy. It couldn't keep powering its master like it had. Eventually, it ran out of power it could give. The device that granted Aizen near deity like powers had been reduced to little more than a life support system. The hogyoku couldn't power him nearly as much as it did before, but it could at least manage to keep Aizen's radiation poisoning, and severe burns from completely killing him.

Footsteps echoed across the previously silent city.

Large metallic boots grinded the gravel beneath it as it approached, a large rifle fused to a curved blade being held in one hand. In the other hand, a .50 AE caliber Desert Eagle looted from a dead augment. It was clad in white armor, covered in puncture holes, dried blood, dirt, and ash. The helmet was busted out to reveal a skeleton with a cracked fourhead.

It was the Meta.

The twisted parody of an augment was unaffected by the lack of breathable air, as spirits had no real need to breath anyway. The Meta's hollow healing factor had kept it from falling victim to the radiation poisoning. The Meta's steel like skin cracked and peeled under the high temperature, but otherwise kept it from dieing to the intense heat, or suffering from a heat stroke. Despite all this, the hybrid could still feel itself being weakened simply from standing in the impact zone of a nuclear warhead. If it lingered, it would surely die, but it had planned to make this quick.

The hybrid came to a stop over the body of Aizen, watching as the hogyoku pulsed desperately with energy to keep Aizen from death's door. With all the previously named factors still in effect, it was obvious that the hogyoku would eventually burn itself out from the strain, and by extension, Aizen's life would be over. There was really no point in putting further effort into his death.

However, a good soldier never assumes a target dead without personally confirming the kill.

The Meta chambered several rounds into its looted Desert Eagle and pointed it at Aizen's head. The hogyoku's power was focused entirely on saving Aizen from his already existing wounds, and was failing even at that. It didn't have the spare energy required to harden Aizen's skin against bullets. Especially bullets designed to pierce through armor.

*cough* *cough* *cough*

Aizen began hacking into a coughing fit, which lightly startled the Meta. It had assumed that Aizen would still be unconscious for at least a couple more hours. If he was conscious, he could possibly draw from another source of power to rejuvenate him. He wouldn't have his powers at a level like it was before, for centuries to come, but he'd still be a potent and undeniable threat so long as he lived.

The Meta didn't hesitate. With practiced speed and precision, the hybrid cocked back the hammer and aimed the weapon directly in between the mad man's eyes.

Aizen eye's flew open in alarm at the strangely metallic sound of a gun cocking back.

_**BANG! **_

_**BANG! **_

_**BANG!**_

An emptied out desert eagle was dropped to the ground at Aizen's feet. The static '_buzz_' of a sonido sounded before silence once again rained.

xxXxx

* * *

Karakura city, Japan, December 26th

Ichigo's eyes widened in shock.

Aizen's reiatsu signature had just...disappeared!

Now the orange haired teen may have sucked at sensing the reiatsu signatures of others, but one as large and unmistakeable as Aizen's couldn't possibly slip past his notice. Ichigo could only gape in astonishment as he starred at the quickly fading traces of the mushroom cloud. It was clear what had happened.

That nuke had killed Aizen!

Ichigo pushed off a car that had fallen on top of him during the explosion, and used a bit of his reiatsu to blow away all the rubble around him. He turned to look for Gin, but barely got a chance to turn around. Right when he looked over his shoulder, a bunch of debris that had covered up the window of a store blew outward in a violent explosion. Gin immediately ran out the building, sword drawn and ready.

"Let's go Ichigo! Before he regenerates!" Gin called out before preparing to shunpo.

"No wait!" Ichigo's eyes widened as he called out to him. Gin halted, an impatient look on his face.

"What? Didn't you see the power behind that attack! There's no way he could've shrugged that off! This is our chance!"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you dumb ass! AIZEN IS DEAD!"

Ichigo's statement seemed to echo for a moment, as if the statement alone had brought about some form of peace. Ignoring the odd vibe he just felt, he steadied his gaze on Gin, who could only stare with an incredulous expression.

"How would you know? I couldn't even feel his power level, because it was just that high! How can you?"

"Wait, you couldn't feel it? I thought you just didn't want to say anything about it. Anyway, I know he's dead! It feels like I was standing under a heat lamp for the past hour, and I just now felt it go out, a little bit after that nuclear bomb explosion died down. Apparently we overestimated him. The initial explosion didn't kill him. Apparently he died out to his wounds from the bomb."

"...Well aside from your own mind, and conclusions, do you have any proof he's dead?" Gin demanded.

"I do."

Both shinigami spun around, Zanpakuto drawn and ready to kill.

They both relaxed when the identity of the man was revealed to be none other than James Wesker, clad in his usual black power armor and trench coat combination. They immediately grew serious as they awaited the news he had for them.

"Our reiatsu radars confirmed that Aizen's signature just blinked out of existence. Like Ichigo said, it wasn't during or immediately after the explosion, implying he was using his powers to sustain himself before dieing. A bit dramatic, but results are results. Aizen is confirmed dead. It's been grate working with you-" Wesker stated with a sense of professionalism.

Gin and Ichigo seemed to relax at his words, glad that the nightmare was over.

"-Even if the both of you didn't do shit."

They both bolted upright with their fists up, yelling a bunch of explicit comments and insults, to which Wesker just chuckled in amusement.

"Alright, calm down you two. Had Aizen lived through that, without you two here, we would've had to hit him with another nuclear strike, which would've started doing extensive damage to the environment. The help that you and the other shinigami have given us has proved invaluable."

Gin relaxed into a smile, and looked around.

"So... what now?"

"What happens now is that you gather up all the shinigami here and return to Soul Society to rebuild. We're going to stay here and put the Youkai forces across Japan down for good. And make it fast. Reinforcements from China are swarming across Japan. The U.S. 3rd fleet is en route and along with 3 battalions worth of soldiers, tanks, and aircraft, being flown in. With the presence of the Youkai in Japab, we can cover up the hollows and Shinigami's existence fairly easily. We'll just blame the damage here in this city on higher tier monsters and witches. You can all go home, we still have a war to fight."

Ichigo felt his mood dampen at this. They had gotten so caught up in fighting the Arrancar, and later Aizen, that the Youkai army had been entirely forgotten. The Shinigami could all head back to Soul Society and reinstate order. He had to remain here and continue to help fight off even more inhuman invaders.

Great.

Looking up, Ichigo was startled to see that Wesker had disappeared again. He looked everywhere around for him but couldn't catch a glimpse of the colossally tall man. This time however, there was no guiding voice or footsteps. He was just gone.

"Forget about him Ichigo, we need to help everyone get back on their feet. That means finding Orihime so she can work her magic." Gin interrupted.

Completely thrown off by the seemingly random topic, Ichigo could only respond with an unintelligible "Huh?"

"You forgot? Every shinigami here except us is either dead, dying, or incapacitated, including one of our best healers, Retsu Unohana. We need to go get Orihime to heal them all."

"Oh shit you're right! Let's go!" Ichigo cried out.

With that, they both zeroed in on the location of Orihime's reiatsu. A second later, they were both Flash stepping across the charred remains of Karakura city.

xxXxx

* * *

Gyokuro was infuriated beyond any possible expression.

She had suffered a humiliating defeat, been betrayed by someone who she had considered to be an ally, and then had some her scouts report a day ago that Aizen's army appeared to be fighting the human army and losing!

If things couldn't possibly get any worst, the humans were swarming in from everywhere! Her monsters were being slaughtered by aerial bombardments and artillery. It was only due to the fact that normal humans couldn't stand up to them in close quarters fighting that they managed to cling on to what little ground they could. Even then, those monsters had to brave a barrage of fire power to make it that close.

It seemed that the only good news so far was that no PWCD augments had been seen since Aizen's army had arrived in Karakura city.

The vampiress was fuming inside the Shuzen castle, along with both of her daughters, Akuha and Kahlua. Too much was happening at once. There was no way she could win this war, no matter how many monsters and magical assets she gathered. There were just too many humans, who were all too well armed to fight head on. They could field thousands of trained and armed men at a moments notice, where she could field fifty, maybe a hundred if they were all weakling youkai. Even using the humans own guns and rifles against them, they only seemed to fight even better as the humans were fighting in their comfort zone, instead of having to compensate for the monsters' bull rush tactics.

It wasn't a matter of species capabilities. There was simply too large a human to youkai ratio to wage an effective war. Then the humans had such a massive technological advantage that any magic used could easily be countered with a certain field of human science. Brute strength was the only real advantage that humans couldn't truly adapt to and compensate for. So instead, humans used guns so that monsters couldn't get close. There wasn't any advantage she could exploit that would make an equalizer for this war.

However, she refused to accept that humans would rule the world, and that her kind, superior in every way, would simply bow down to those rats like they deserved it.

Extinction was preferable to being under the heel of the humans. Any monster that disagreed with this was little more than blight upon the youkai race, and a pet to the humans. As such, they deserved to die as much as any human did.

"Gyokuro."

The blond vampiress turned around at the voice, already growling as she recognized the owner of it.

She turned to face the one vampire who she could honestly say she detested more than most humans, as well as respected more than most youkai. The woman always wore that laughable pink dress. She had natural pink hair to match her clothing of choice. Worst than all else however, she was one of the three dark lords. Not by political power, as she had handed her power to their husband, Issa Shuzen. She was still, however, every bit as powerful as a dark lord. She was one of the most powerful people in not just the entire vampire race, but the entire youkai race. Her name was-

"Akasha Bloodriver. What do you want?" Gyokuro growled at her, simply being angered by her presence.

"You're ending this pointless war." The women stated simply.

Gyokuro blinked for a moment, uncertain she had just heard correctly. Had this undeserving woman just ordered her to do something so casually, as if she were a common household slave?

"What did you just say to me?" Gyokuro stated, anger seeping into her voice.

"I said you're ending this war. The Shuzen household has not only pulled its support from Fairy Tale, but has decided to end hostilities between them and humanity by any means necessary."

Gyokuro was too flabbergasted to speak. To think, this bitch had just talked down to her, like she was some sort of disobedient child!

"How dare you! Who do you think you are speaking to with that disrespectful tone!"

"I've reclaimed my position as Dark Lord from Issa. He's endorsed too many foolish, half thought ideas for me to stand idly by any longer. The worst of such ideas was agreeing to support you in your foolish decision to create and organize Fairy Tale."

Gyokuro snapped.

All pretense of logical decision stopped as she launched a punch at the woman who had garnered her ire, putting all her strength into a single punch. Her fist met something unyieldingly sturdy, stopping her punch cold. The ground shattered and cracked beneath her feet at the sheer concussive force of her punch.

Her eyes widened as she realized Akasha had stopped her punch by simply catching it, and she hadn't even shifted from her normal posture!

Akasha pushed away Gyokuro's fist like it was child''s play and looked her in her eyes with a sturdy glare. She gave her a brief show of force by bursting her youki energy. Gyokuro was chilled to the bone to find that Akasha's power far exceeded her own abilities.

"Perhaps I wasn't making myself clear." She started, taking 2 steps forward. Gyokuro stubbornly standing her ground, could only watch as the normally bubbly woman came face to face with her, entering her personal space. "I wasn't ordering you as a house wife to a mistress. I was ordering you as a Dark Lord to an insubordinate member of my species."

With that Gyokuro was grabbed by her throat and choke-slammed against the floor. Akasha could've sent the women all the way through the ground and into the basement. However, she wasn't trying to kill the woman, as she would then have to kill many more Fairy Tale agents as a result. She was simply sending a message. Leaning down, she began to speak into Gyokuro's ear with a dangerously low voice.

"Because of you, millions of humans are dead. What's worse is that you've exposed monster kind to the human public. Monsters tried fighting humans for planet dominance thousands of years ago and lost miserably. Since then, humanity has gotten much stronger due to constant inner human fighting. If our species couldn't win then, what makes you think we had a prayer now? We separated ourselves from the human controlled world for our own protection, and you, in your foolishness have ruined all we had worked for. Now, monster kind is in a position where if we don't beg for forgiveness, humanity will assume all of monster kind is against them, and kill every last one of us."

"You overestimate them." Gyokuro heatedly stated, even from her less than dignified position.

"You underestimated them!" Akasha yelled in the woman's ear before lifting her off the ground and holding in the air. "This isn't about monster pride. We both know that monsters are physically superior to humans. However, they're more adaptive, brutal, and ruthless than any monster could hope to be once they gain power over another creature. They casually kill each other in the millions, over things such as differing political views. What do you think they would do to us, especially now that you've aggravated their entire species into wanting blood? As we lived before, we were out of human kind's destructive reach. We've remained that way for millennia, and now you ruined all that for a fools goal."

Akasha paused and took a calming breath, dropping Gyokuro in an unceremonious heap on the floor. When the women tried to stand up, Akasha took a step toward her so that she hovered over her prone form.

"Monster kind will not suffer for your foolishness any longer. I'm going to the United Nations Headquarters, along with the leader of all the monster clans, of course with the exceptions of those who supported you organization. If they were foolish enough to invest themselves in such a idiotic idea, and their people didn't move to dethrone them for carrying such actions out, then energy can't be spent trying to help them. The simple fact we are monsters is enough for the humans to want to kill us. We can't allow anyone in the party to taint our image more than the humans will do for us."

Akasha turned and began walking away.

"Dissolve Fairy Tale, and have all the monsters still fighting to surrender immediately. If you refuse, I'll deal with you myself. If you hide, I'll tell the PWCD everything I know about your organization, which is a lot, and let them do with you what they please. If you manage to evade the PWCD for an extended length of time, and negotiations don't yield the minimum results that I want, then I'll find you and make you suffer for damning us all."

Akasha left.

Peace was seemingly more and more like a distant memory now.

XxXxx

* * *

Author's Note: Huzzah! The bastard is finally dead!

You know, after typing around 150 thousand words to lead up to this moment, it wasn't nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be. I must not be at the level the more famous fanfiction writers are at. The people who are really good at this are people who expressed an interest in becoming Novelist and Script Writers, and the such. I plan on going into computers, which has nothing to do with writing other than emailing people I have to work with. Hell, I'm surprised I have as many reviews as I do now. Stories like 'Emperor of Zero' are way better than my typo filled mess, yet that fic has less reviews. That's probably more due to Bleach and R&V having a bigger and more frequently visiting fan base than FoZ does though.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess.

Aside from that, the ride is almost over. The Arrancar are all incarcerated. The hollows are a disorganized mess (as usual). The Shinigami aren't in a position to do anything for awhile. Fairy Tale is being smashed by the "normal" human military. The only loose end is Gyokuro, who is doomed to either be hunted down by the PWCD, or a very pissed off Akasha Bloodriver.

And before you guys ask, yes, there will be a sequel.

…

Wonder how many people will notice any similarities between Akasha's speech and my author inspiration. ;)


	36. Patience

Author's Note: How long has it been since I started writing this story? About 6 months ago? Well hey, I definitely can't say this has been a long ride. Hell, half that time I was on a 3-month long, Microsoft failure induced, hiatus. I've seen stories with wait periods longer than that, in between chapter updates.

Well, I can't brag about having a 'deep, awe inspiring story', but at least I can say I can write a lot in a short amount of time.

By the way, I have a complaint to file to the Bleach writer.

I was informed that if the PWCD kept offing hollows, than eventually souls would stop going into circulation and every human who was born would be born a soulless husk from then on due to all the souls being dead. From what I initially understood, souls went to Soul Society or Hell, and if they're (un)lucky, get turned into and/or eaten by hollows. From there, they reincarnated as humans to restart the process all over.

It's here that I've found a logical error. (Please PM me if I'm WAY off, because I'm only a passive fan of Bleach, not a dedicated one. It's likely I didn't hear something right.)

Now I assume souls in hell can't escape or go back into circulation, because they're bad eggs and they all need to be kept away from the good eggs (which if people like Mayuri are being labeled as 'good eggs', then I shudder at what kind of people must be in Hell). Also, the hollow population MUST be in the millions. Just look at how many hollows that have been seen at one place before in the series. In one point in the series, hundreds of Gillians were in a single place, which are in turn made of hundreds of normal hollows, who've each eaten who knows how many other hollows and souls. Despite the number of them being offed by the Shinigami Captains, they just kept coming. Then Vasto Lorde are supposed to be the result of what happens when you cram the entire city of New York into a single person, and there's supposed to be more than a few of them running around somewhere in Huecco Mundo.

So in that sense, adding Hell and Huecco Mundo means there are literally dozen to hundreds of millions of souls that aren't being included in the balance of souls.

So if a human dies, there's a good chance he'll be knocked off course into Huecco Mundo or go to hell, meaning a large portion of dead people are leaving the circulation of Spirits and, apparently not being replaced. The Gotei 13 don't kill nearly enough hollows to offset the population of the critters around Huecco Mundo. That much is established just watching how badly they handle the souls in Karakura Town, and that's supposed to be a MAJOR Shinigami stronghold in the real world!

Mind you, this means a steady amount of souls are 'leaking' from this supposed air tight system that the Soul Society has in place, and they've continued like this since the beginning of time. Despite this, I never heard about any soulless husks popping up. In fact, during the fight between Rukia and Aronierro, it was said that people who die in the soul society don't reincarnate at all! Their bodies break down into dust and join the countless other spirit particles in the Soul Society. If that's the case, once you die, you're just gonna die again at a later date no matter what. The only real difference between dieing as a hollow and dieing as a Soul is that one of the two doesn't become infused with the realm they're in. If that's the only difference, than the reason for the Quincy genocide wasn't nearly as justified as I thought it was.

This whole story I went acknowledging that the PWCD was probably screwing up so many spiritual laws that they might cause an apocalypse or something, but they wouldn't realisticly put anything else before the safety of the still living humans. If souls are doomed to dieing one way or the other anyway, than they actually causing that much harm at all. Souls apparently only reincarnate on very special occasions while the rest more or less turn into spirit fertilizer. In this case, the only reason humanity needed the shinigami was to keep the hollows from eating them all before they went to the Soul Society, and driving them to extinction. If someone else takes care of the hollow threat, than humanity doesn't have any real need for the Shinigami at all, save for cleaning up the few souls that don't pass on by themselves for whatever reason.

Then I'm forced to ask, if babies aren't born with their own souls in this series, than where are their souls coming from in the first place? They aren't coming from Soul Society or Huecco Mundo. This becomes an offshoot of the question 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?'. Did humans come first or souls, because there's no point to having a 'balance' at all if the answer is 'both'.

Then I don't even know where to begin on the matter of how with the Trillions of people who've died over history, how is it that everyone has unanimously agreed to live in a Feudal Japan setting. You'd think if millions of soldiers died during WW2 and woke up in what they thought was Japan, they'd all be flipping out and causing all kinds of trouble.

Sorry, I'm starting to get off track.

Anyway, the PWCD has probably killed a couple thousand hollows by now, counting the arrancar. If you translate the hollows into souls, than the PWCD has probably offed around several hundred thousand souls. That many hollows are probably 'born' over the course of a few years, taking all of the world into account. So, to avoid this huge plot hole altogether, I'm just stating that everyone in this series is born with their own souls, and the reincarnated Souls just manage to squeeze their way into the circulation somehow. Any other explanation I could think of for how this balance works just doesn't make sense.

By the way, I kept hearing questions of why the humans didn't stop killing hollows once they found out they were once human. To answer that question, we kill other humans _while_ they live, look, talk, and act just like us. There are countless points in history where we murdered each other down to the women and children, in the most inhumane ways, without a second thought. Does anyone here really think we'd hold back just because those giant, skull-headed, man-eating, things used to look like us once upon a time? I imagine that if we have no qualms about dropping nukes on our fellow man, than no one's going to lose any sleep repeating this on a bunch of cannibalistic monsters.

Everyone on the same page?

Okay then, here's the final chapter.

xxXxx

* * *

**Patience**

January 8th, 2009

"The world is in a state of anarchy as we find out that we're not alone, not just in this universe, but on our own planet!"

_click._

"Almost 100 million people dead in a matter of days! The entire nation of Japan was nearly wiped out in a single organized attack! Those abominations calling themselves 'Youkai' aren't simply dangerous! They're threats to humanity! We can't possibly even consider forgiving them for this, regardless of what 'promises' they try to make!"

_click._

"A cease fire is being called between the U.S., Chinese, and Japanese coalition force, and these beings who call themselves 'Youkai', which translates to the English language as 'Specters'. A delegation of these 'Youkai' arrived at the United Nations meeting in New York, denouncing the invaders of Japan as terrorists and extremists while asking for an end to the hostilities that have been 'unfairly' placed upon them. Early into the negotiations, all forms of media of any kind were asked to leave the room. It is being heatedly debated whether or not the Youkai should be believed."

_click._

"We have seen not only monsters, but confirmed visuals of some form of super soldiers fighting these creatures throughout the entire country during the war. Thus far, there have been no clear markings or symbols seen on them to indicate their allegiance. The United States, China, and Japan, all deny any affiliation or ownership of these soldiers. Many wonder if these super soldiers were some form of monsters themselves."

_click._

"Economic aid is being funneled to Japan from all over the world, as relief efforts go into full effect. An estimated 75% of the population was killed in the initial attack. The military presence in Japan is only increasing as days go on and pockets of Youkai resistance still refuse to surrender. This is the single largest outreach effort in human history, as countries on the other side of planet supply Japan with several hundred tons of food and supplies. Estimates say that even with so much aid being given, it will be decades before the once thriving country of Japan recaptures its former glory. Not to mention, mass graves are beginning to undergo construction all around the country as corpsmen go through the tough job of identifying bodies and either burying or cremating them."

The President of the PWCD shut off the T.V., feeling a mild migraine starting to set in.

It was times like this, that he remembered why they had to hide everything they did from the public. If they don't, shit like this happens. The knowledge that monsters existed was blowing up the media. He was certain that in a matter of weeks, the most isolated, uncivilized, back water places in the world would know all about this. In addition, sightings of PWCD super soldiers were beginning to set off some controversy. He was certain that once the monster hysteria died down a bit, however long that would take, he'd have thousands of human rights advocates riding his ass about the moral ambiguity of modifying humans past their pre-set limits. He'd have people accusing his organization of such nonsense as 'trying to play God', or 'evolutionize the human race'. In reality, the augmentation process was simply made for ground soldiers to have a fighting chance against the creatures they had to fight, and if he had anything to say about it, that was _all_ it would be used for. On the far other end of the spectrum, people would be demanding that they receive augmentations as well, or perhaps try to imitate it the process to their own ends. There's no telling what uses a dictator could get out off having access to super humans.

There was so much going on right now that he was certain he'd start having dreams about being chased by paperwork and smart-ass bureaucrats.

Well, at least his soldiers performed as well as one could expect, given their situation. They focused on rescuing civilians and neutralizing hostiles, being as efficient as they could in both tasks. As far as he was concerned, he'd find a way to give each and every one of those brave men a proper shore leave for their valor. They were thrown into battle as front line soldiers, even though they functioned as a Black Ops organization. Not a single one of those men were intended to dig in and fight in trenches and straight up combat, yet not a single one of them had any complaints about doing it. He was still working on his idea of securing an out of the way island that PWCD personnel could go to for R&R without worrying about civilians and prying eyes.

He'd also have to organize a funeral.

The President cursed, realizing he'd have to find a way to honor the deaths of people who, as far as the rest of the world knew, had never existed. Not only that, he was still rushing operatives out to go and secure all the suits of power armor they could find before anyone else got their hands on it, as well as disposing of hollow and arrancar bodies. In between, sweeping the whole arrancar/hollow invasion under a rug, trying to legitimize the use of not one but two nuclear weapons inside a city occupied by friendly forces, and trying to deal with the shinigami situation in an unnoticeable way, he was certain he'd have to lay those Island plans off to the side.

Not to mention every country in the world suddenly had the right to criticize the effectiveness of the PWCD, seeing as the entire country of Japan almost got wiped out. He was certain that if he hadn't gone into detail about the threat level that Aizen and his arrancar possessed, and why it was necessary that they be neutralized first and foremost, the UN would've moved to have the PWCD disbanded for incompetency. He was certain that the many people saw the simple presence of Monsters at the United Nations as a horrendous failure on the PWCD's part.

Of course he couldn't blame them.

The PWCD was established all those years ago to specifically stop this kind of thing from happening. However, no matter how widespread, asking a single organization to regulate the hostile actions of an entire species, while going incognito about it was asking a bit much. It literally only took a few minutes for anyone with a camera phone to record something they shouldn't have, and post it up on youtube or somewhere. In addition, they found themselves suddenly at war with the entire afterlife, dealing with soul devouring monsters, and ghost samurai. No one could possibly blame them for something like that happening.

The President broke off from his thoughts when one of his aides came in, gave him a look of pity, and plopped a 3 inch thick stack of paperwork on his desk before walking back out.

The man started wondering how far away he could run before anyone realized he was gone.

xxXxx

* * *

In one of the PWCD bases set up in Japan, a large group of 5 arrancar were calmly walking down a hallway and conversing, barely acknowledging the lingering glances they aroused from the nearby humans. Though the sight of arrancar had become quite common in recent weeks, it didn't make the people residing inside the structure any less wary. Harribel, her fraccion, and Neliel were all walking together, all of them in their resurrected forms save for Neliel, who was wearing PWCD issued fatigue pants and a tight fitting t-shirt. It was a rather odd sight to the humans that resided here, seeing their former enemies casually walk around their headquarters.

They had, after all, just ended a war between their two species less than a month ago.

"Are you sure of this Harribel? I mean, this is a pretty big step your taking." Neliel stated, walking alongside one of her new found friends.

"Yes, I am sure."

A door opened in front of them, where a pair of engineers were dragging out some sort of large mechanical object on a cart. It was apparently heavier than it looked, because an augment was on the other side of the cart, pushing it. The 5 women allowed the humans passage, pausing their conversation. When the 3 humans passed through they continued walking, the 3 fraccion in the back abruptly getting into an argument over something trivial.

"But how do you think the others will look at you? I mean, wouldn't this be seen a bit like betrayal?" Neliel pressed

"They will eventually come to their senses and realize I was correct in my decision. Then, they'll follow suit." The tan skinned woman stated with certainty.

"Well...I guess bu-"

"Why are you trying to talk me out of this decision? You made it yourself, and seem quite happy with it." The current tercera stated

"My circumstances were different. I didn't have anyone else to go to." Neliel stated in an almost fiery tone.

"And we do? Aizen has fallen, and with him, all of Huecco Mundo is back to its state of ravenous chaos." Harribel coolly responded.

To that, Neliel quieted.

Down the hall, the two tercera espada noticed a pair of augments, both of them wearing fatigues and bulletproof vests but devoid of their trademark power armor. They were both outfitted with an assortment of weapons. The arrancar had learned that whenever they saw augments in this building that were armed, it meant they were either just coming from a mission, or preparing for a mission. They didn't believe in always being prepared, as they revolved entirely around the concept of striking their enemies while they were unprepared and leaving without a trace. Humans also never really feared 'friendly fire' like other species had to constantly worry about, so were at peace to leave themselves unarmed and at each others mercy without worry. Neliel found that odd, as the Youkai were negotiating with the humans, and the spirit world as a whole was isolating themselves from the real world as they tried to rebuild. That being said, what non-human threats were left that would warrant augments to be sent? And if they were being sent, why weren't they in full armor? Without it, they were vulnerable to a number of deadly abilities hollows and Youkai possessed.

Neliel just huffed and ignored it. She was quickly learning that when it came to humans, the more you knew, the bleaker your outlook on life got. Maybe that was why most of the human leaders she met were slight downers to be around?

"Let me make this clear. I don't trust any of them. However, it'd be pointless to simply stay contained in our cells as if we're caged animals." Harribel stated, snapping the woman out of her thoughts.

"Harribel, you don't plan to betray them do you?" Neliel whispered to her harshly. In response, the other tercera shook her head.

"That would be pointless. Where would me and my fraccion escape to afterward? I simply think that if we're being forced to stay here, we may as well try to earn the trust of the humans here. There's nothing to be gained in simply staying in our cells and glaring." Harribel stated.

The 5 women finally arrived at their destination, the 3 fraccion still enraptured in their argument while Neliel and Harribel were tuning them out.

"Well are you ready?" Neliel stated, looking at the taller woman worriedly.

"Yes. Let's just get on with it."

With a nod, Neliel walked up to the door, which required a password to go through. With Neliel having become good friends with the HSF commander, she frequented this particular area enough that the man had extended her proper clearance to be able to enter the room without having to coerce any of the nearby guards into opening it for her. She partially suspected that some of the resident augments had complained about her ability to manipulate others into going where she wanted, and HSF commander just gave her clearence as an excuse to evade those complaints. Either way, she was more than happy to accept.

The woman slipped her name card into a slot at the center of the door. When she pulled it out, a 'click' sounded and the door slid open.

Mr. Miyagi, the commander of the Headquarters Security Force, and Jacob, the Squad Leader of Grave Team, were both engaged in a deep discussion over cups of coffee. Both men were wearing PWCD fatigues, with the augment wearing a long brimmed fishing hat. Neither of the war hardened humans noticed the entrance of the 5 female arrancar and continued on with their conversation, spontaneously breaking out into laughter about whatever it was they were talking about.

Neliel politely cleared her throat.

Both men turned their heads, and immediately tensed. Jacob snatched his side arm from his holster, and placed his other hand over it in case he needed to cock and fire the weapon. The HSF commander wasn't nearly as startled as to do something so drastic, but his right hand was reaching around his waist for something while his left hand was gripping the edge of his seat.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! No need for all that!" Neliel hurriedly sputtered out, trying to avoid conflict.

She noticed that when the augment had his gun out faster than she could blink, her fellow arrancar had balled their fists up for a fight. Since they were separated from their zanpokuto, and their powers were booby trapped, hand to hand was their only means of self defense. She dearly hoped that everyone would start warming up eventually. They were all allies and humans, to a slight degree, after all. Even the few non-humans she had met had been pleasant to be around.

"Neliel Tu Oderschvank, why do you have 4 dangerous prisoners out of their cells?" Miyagi asked, in a low voice.

Neliel subconsciously cringed. When he used her full name, it was his subtle way of showing that no amount fast talking would get her out of trouble. She could at least find relief in the fact that Jacob had put his gun back in the holster, but not relinquished his grip. Well she knew she'd get a chance to talk, if nothing else.

"Well, you see, we had something to ask you...but we didn't know when you'd come back down to the prison cells...and we were sorta hoping that-" Neliel fumbled her words.

"_For the love of-_ We wanna join your damn group!" Apacci yelled out, tired of watching Neliel fumble her words around.

Mr. Miyagi cocked an eyebrow, while Jacob's eyes widened in disbelief. He may not have been all that surprised at the idea of working with non-humans, as his squad had done just that with the Shinigami, during the war with the arrancar. What he was surprised at was the idea of the PWCD, an organization dedicated to the defense of human interest, accepting non-humans as auxiliaries. The entire concept just seemed counter productive, and easily capable of backfiring. After all, if you fight non-humans, and accept non-humans as additional forces, then they are very likely to just defect back with their own kind.

"It is true. In our current state, we have nowhere else to go except Huecco Mundo, which in its current state is a horrible place to live." Harribel explained. Jacob grunted in response, not entirely buying it. If a trio of shinigami could just walk in and gather the hollows into an organized military, than whose to say someone else couldn't?

"I...see. I assume the other arrancar wish to join our organization as well?" The HSF commander hesitantly stated.

"No. They aren't aware of where I've gone, only that I was escorted out by Neliel after sharing a private conversation beforehand." Harribel continued, looking dignified and prideful all the while.

Jacob silently wondered how she could have such an Victorian attitude while wearing the most...interesting choice of clothing attire he had ever seen. Knee high armored boots, a bone skirt, and a bra/shoulder pad-like contraption were definitely on his list of 'Let's see if anyone ever does something like this'. Then he took a better look at the 3 girls behind her. A snake hybrid, an Amazon-esque with a mane, and a girl in a fur suit with antlers.

Jacob decided he hadn't gotten enough caffeine in his system to be dealing with something like this, and decided to grab his coffee and go elsewhere. This didn't involve him, and the HSF commander seemed to be very familiar with this scenario to begin with, if his actions implied anything. He politely excused himself out the room.

"Well Neliel, you know by now that my job is making sure no trouble is caused on this base. Drafting non-humans doesn't fall into my job description." The HSF commander explained, feeling put on the spot, now that his drinking buddy had abruptly left.

"Oh I know, but since you're good friends with the guy who _is_ in charge of all that stuff, we were hoping you'd be able to help us." Neliel beamed. Miyagi frowned.

"You do realize that if I endorse this, and one of you fuck up-" Harribel's fraccion cried out in indignation "Than this all falls on my head, right?" Mr. Miyagi explained, hoping that the weight of what she was asking might be better understood.

Without warning, Neliel lunged forward and brought the man into a tight hug. "Oh I knew you wouldn't let us down!" The man sighed.

Apparently not.

xxXxx

* * *

February, 2nd, 2009

Gyokuro was furious.

She was currently on her way to a private jet to Africa. Her assets and resources were all frozen or seized. Fairy Tale has all but fallen apart. Issa Shuzen himself was booted off his rightful throne by Akasha Bloodriver. There was nothing in this country left for her. Africa was one of the few places in the world that the damn humans wouldn't be able to track her every move to, and the money in her pocket would still allow her to have a comfortable living. The only other place that would be viable would be Antarctica, which was nothing but water, frozen water, but water none the less. Even if the place wasn't a hazard to her life just to be near, she detested the cold. Africa was infested with humans, but so many of them were killing each over things that even monsters found petty, that anything she did couldn't be discerned from what they often did to each other.

Her plan of action was to simply wait in Africa for a couple hundred years. From then, she would move back into another first world country and find a way get revenge, not just on humanity, but on the monster world as well, for so readily selling her out so that they could grovel to those lesser beings. Then she would find a way to exact revenge on the traitorous bastard Aizen, that is, if he was still alive. She promised herself that she would see the world burn for what it had done to her, one way or the other.

"Gyokuro Shuzen."

The vampire immediately spun around in a combat stance. Undoubtedly, the PWCD must've been here to kill her. No one else in the world knew where she was, and only the black ops organization had the resources and interest to find out her location and intercept her before she got there herself.

So imagine her surprise when she found herself not staring at a hunter/killer team of super soldiers, but instead, a taller woman of a slightly darker skin tone who was wearing all white. The woman also had a rather large sword in her possession that was wider than she was.

The woman relaxed, seeing as no human soldier would dare approach her in such a garb. She must be a youkai of some sort.

"Why yes, I am Gyokuro. May I ask who you are?" Gyokuro drawled, watching the woman for any odd movements. She was slightly disturbed to find the woman was standing perfectly still, as if she wasn't even breathing. Only zombies could do that, and she could see no signs of magical seals or anything that was reanimating her.

"I am Tia Harribel, the Tercera Espada of Aizen's late hollow army."

Gyokuro's eyes widened in surprise at the revelation. She was a spirit, of course. She had seen an example of the power the arrancar possessed. She almost found it hard to believe that such a powerful species had been defeated by such a weak and meager species as the humans. Given their situation, she was certain that the humans were doing their personal best to exterminate the entire arrancar species as they spoke. The humans feared the prospect of something being greater than they were, and if they couldn't control it, they'd destroy it. So that meant this arrancar must've sought her out for sanctuary.

"You're one of Aizen's commanders? You realize that man betrayed me? Had he kept to his bargain, we may have defeated the humans and claimed the planet as ours. But instead, he blundered and sent us all to a fate of being ruled by these inferior beings." Gyokuro said.

Harribel could only watch in silent amazement. This deluded woman truly thought that by partnering with Aizen, her pathetic attack had a chance at succeeding. From what she had read on the human's perception of the war, Gyokuro had only killed 75% of the population of Japan, which translated into a little under 1% of the total human population, not counting those individuals that humanity labeled as 'non-existent' such as the various spies and black ops operatives under their employ. Her attack was literally just shy of being a 100% failure and talked as if this failure was Aizen-sama's fault. She must've been truly demented.

"Regardless, may I ask why you've sought me out? I'm in a bit of a rush and I doubt this a social call." Gyokuro said, ending her sentence with a smile.

"I've come to destroy you." Harribel said with a cold chill in her voice.

Gyokuro's smile immediately faded in alarm. Harribel found out during the fighting at Karakura, that using her spiritual pressure to bear down on others was ineffective on augments. Their power armored suits had built in life support systems, and after encountering the weaker of hollows, modified their armor to be able to function in high gravity. The combination of these feature made them unaffected by her attempts to bring them to their knees. This lowly Youkai had no such protection.

Harribel glowed bright yellow as her spirit pressure came full force. With that accursed booby trap removed, and her having over a month to heal from her injuries, she was back to her full strength.

Gyokuro was suddenly surrounded by that same yellow glow and crushed against the ground with such intensity the the concrete splintered and cracked beneath her. The vampiress found herself unable to breathe, feeling like she weighed thousands of pounds. She couldn't even cry out in agony as she felt a few of her bones being bent in angles they weren't meant to. Harribel watched impassively as she steadily increased the pressure.

It was funny in a way, the tercera thought. She had heard of humans using similar means to kill as a form of execution long ago. They'd tie people to the ground, and stack blocks of stones on their chests in succession, until their ribs were crushed under the weight. Her spiritual pressure was doing exactly that, but to all of the vampiress' body, while asphyxiating her at the same time. There was no way she'd live if she kept up like this.

"This isn't anything personal. The PWCD wanted to test my effectiveness against Youkai. I found it quite insulting. They had so little faith in me that they placed several snipers around the area in case I failed."

To hear that, Gyokuro eyes grew to the size of saucers. The women released all of her youki energy in a single burst, wiggling and yelling in outrage as she tried to escape the hold the tercera had on her. She appeared more like a caged and cornered animal, screaming curses, growling in rage, flailing wildly.

_'In death, she shows her true colors' _Harribel thought.

With but a thought, the tercera espada doubled the current amount of pressure on Gyokuro. The ground beneath the vampire exploded as she cried out in pain and agony. She felt her bones break under the pressure and slowly compress downward. She felt her ribs pushing upward and into her vital organs. Were it not for her vampire healing, she would've died by now.

Harribel walked over to the agonized vampiress, looking down at her with an unreadable expression.

The arrancar realized that the PWCD operatives tagging along with her were getting restless. They feared retaliation from their enemies so much that they killed their them while they were still unaware. While she understood the logic behind it, she still frowned on it. To her, it was too-...impersonal she should say. As an arrancar, she felt that as a warrior, she should let her opponent know of the person who had bested her. While she agreed it was inefficient, she was never one for efficiency unless there was absolutely no time to squander for such rituals.

"My name is Tia Harribel, late Tercera Espada, and now a warrior of the PWCD Black Operations military arm. You have been defeated, and as the victor, I shall decide your fate." The Tercera drew Tiburon from it's sheath on her back.

The PWCD figured that if these arrancar wished to serve alongside their augmented soldiers, than they should be sent out to fight in a manor that they were familiar with. As such, once the radiation in parts of Karakura disappeared, the arrancar who had pledged their loyalty to the organization were flown back to the city to locate both their and the prisoner's weapons using reiatsu detection (which was only Her, her fraccion, and Ulquiorra so far. Starrk and Lilynette were satisfied enough with the free meals and virtually endless sleeping time that they received as prisoners, while Grimmjow was simply being difficult). After their blades had been thoroughly washed and cleansed of radiation, they were handed back so that those stuck in their resurrected forms could return to their 'sealed' state. Harribel couldn't properly express how much more secure she felt to have her prized blade back in her hands, though her current circumstances demonstrated that she certainly didn't need it.

Gyokuro was so heavy from exposure to the Tercera's reiatsu that she couldn't look up to see her own demise. The arrancar had considered letting up on her only briefly, than cast out the idea.

Tia Harribel felt that giving the woman her full name, title, and honorifics, was enough of an honor. At least she knew the person who had passed her on to the next world was someone of great power and prestige, and not some random person behind an expressionless helmet. That thought going through her head, she finally decided to end it.

"Due to the requirements of my mission, I am forced to chose death as your sentence. Farewell, Gyokuro Shuzen."

With that said, Harribel swung her blade through the air, channeling and sending a sharp wave of her own reiatsu through her own sword and at the grounded vampire.

The woman's head rolled away from her shoulders, her facial expression permanently frozen in crazed fury.

xxXxx

* * *

Author's Note: Well it's been a fun ride.

Finally, I can say that I've finished a story! I can't tell you just how fun this has been to write out for you guys, though I may have to go back to the beginning and rewrite a few parts. I noticed that my later chapters were a lot better than my initial ones. I've already edited about 6 or 7 of the first 10 chapters and it still doesn't look satisfactory to me.

And sorry about not delivering on the Claymore and Elfen Lied crossovers. I extend the same apology to the lack of Youkai Academy being mentioned throughout the story. There was too much going on at the time to add them in, lest I turn a semi-coherent story into a giant mess. I promise to try and satisfy all those of you who wanted to see more of that in the coming sequel.

Not sure what I'm going to title the sequel though. I can't keep ripping off Star Wars movie titles. I think 'Master of Patience' had a nice ring to it, but the title makes it sound more like a mystery/horror movie/suspenseful thriller. I'm not going for any one of those genres.

Feel free to leave suggestions for Titles. Something that grabs attention. Seeing something that said 'Humans Strike Back' in the Bleach and R&V sections of Fan-fiction (anime series that downplayed the worth of average humans) made people click on it just out of idle curiosity. I want to try and make lightning strike twice, and I need the help of YOU the people who put the 'Fan' in 'FANfiction'!

Yes! I am aware of how corny I sound right now!

Thank you all for staying along for the ride, and see you all in the next story: "Untitled until otherwise"


	37. Epilogue

Author's Note: Sorry, but I couldn't leave you all like this, not without at least _some_ closure. From all the stories I've read, the best ones are the ones that sort of wrap up the initial story in a long term solution. That way, no one feels tricked into _having_ to watch more than one book or movie to finally get through the entire story, which makes them want to see the sequel out of honest curiosity rather than out of obligation to find how this all ties together.

Now here is where I _really _tie up the story for good.

xxXxx

**Epilogue**

The world is a funny place.

Every action has a tendency of coming full circle in a way too fitting to be coincidental. It happens so frequently that entire religions have been based on the circumstances. People have labeled these cause and effect incidents a number of things. 'Karma', 'Divine intervention', 'God's sense of humor', the names of them are numerous, and every one of them hits the nail on the head. The consequences of these actions can manifest in one of three ways.

The first is that those people who committed these actions receive precisely what they've been pursuing. Depending on what kind of actions they've committed, they will either pride themselves on, or deeply regret their decisions.

The second is that they watch someone else repeat the actions they themselves had done to others, but on to them.

The third is that their own actions resurface and decide their fate, for better or worse.

In any of those scenarios, a person will want to have done what was right, but the problem occurs in the fact hat everyone's opinion of 'right and wrong' varies on a tremendous level. What some would call an unforgivable atrocity, others may view as the epitome of heroic action. As such, no definition of right and wrong can ever be established. All that can be done is to show everyone the results of their actions, and let them decide for themselves whether or not what they did was the right thing to do.

xxXxx

Ichigo, Chad, Uryuu, and Orihime were currently on the country of Laos.

Many Japanese civilians had been transferred from the off shore islands, and into other countries where they would be more defensible from Youkai assault. The countries of Vietnam, North and South Korea, Laos, China, Cambodia, and the island territories of the U.S. had no real reason to deny the people entrance into their country due to the circumstances the civilians were faced with. They were forcibly removed from their own country, and left with nowhere to go until their homeland could be reclaimed. With the entire country serving as a battlefield, even with the temporary 'truce' that had been called between Fairy Tale and the U.S. And Chinese armed forces, any hope of them returning to their country in the near future would be non-existent.

The teenagers had quietly integrated themselves into the civilian population after the fighting in Karakura had settled. To their immense relief, the majority of their family members were still alive. As their relatives lived in the city of Karakura, they were in the real world stronghold of the 13 protection squads. As such, when the monster attacks came, their was already a capable response force in place to fight back against the creatures at a moment's notice. Ichigo and his friends, the Vizards, Urahara and Yoruichi, all of them were on the move the second the monster plants had begun manifesting. When PWCD planes came in, along with those of the Japanese military and other armed forces, the monster population was already fairly battered.

When the human super soldiers finally got their boots on Japanese soil, the rest was history.

As of now, the portion of Japanese civilians to be sent to Laos were currently residing in a hastily assembled military camp. Hundred of massive oval shaped tents had been set up, and were currently housing thousands of Japanese civilians. Several dozen helicopters were coming in and dropping several dozen tons worth of food, clothing, and other supplies. World wide relief efforts were in full effect, with countless amounts of supplies being distributed to the once proud citizens, who were now officially refugees.

The group of hollow fighting children were standing around a bonfire inside the refugee camp. They were all in a sober mood as they were coming to terms with what had happened to them. In hindsight, it really shouldn't surprise them that things such as the youkai existed. Considering all the other otherworldly monstrosities that walked the spirit realm, one would assume that they couldn't _all_ be warped parodies of human souls. What did shock them however, was the fact that they would so viciously attack humans with such hatred and glee in their eyes.

What had the human species done to deserve such animosity from the monster realm?

Ichigo was crushed the most by the occurrence. His sisters were both safe, along with his Father, who had been healed by Orihime's magical ability to reverse the damage of any wound or death blow. Miraculously, his family had all managed to be reunited together due to whatever system the people in charge were using to place the Japanese refugees.

But that wasn't what pained him.

It was the fact that, no matter how hard he fought to protect others, he had still seen countless civilians being murdered. No matter how fast he shunpo'd or ran, he couldn't save everyone. Even with the aide of all of his friends, allies, and even additional Gotie 13 shinigami, they still couldn't keep everybody safe. They were only a handful of people fighting against a full fledged army. Nothing short of God himself intervening could've prevented such a massive slaughter, yet this knowledge still didn't settle Ichigo's nerve.

He hated them.

He despised youkai with all his being. They were cruel, merciless, and savage. At least hollows weren't physically capable of acting different from their own instincts unless they had an unbelievably strong will and moral conviction. Hollows were driven to do the deeds they did out of mentally debilitating hunger, and the few that resisted had to fall back to cannibalism. The youkai had no such excuse. They were fully conscious of what they were inflicting, and enjoyed doing it.

He had even heard the monsters _laughing_ and _joking_ while they committed genocide!

Ichigo barred his teeth with barely concealed fury, feeling his reiatsu start to slip from his control. He remembered cutting down the creatures more in a panicked sense of species preservation than actual hatred. Now that he had a chance to think about the nature of his enemy, and why they did what they did, he dearly wished to return to Japan so that he could _slowly_ hack them apart. No. That wouldn't be the least bit painful enough to compare to what those damned monsters had done to innocent people. That had been his first time ever killing an enemy outright. He wasn't able to completely dwell on the thought earlier as so much was going on at the time. Now that he had time to think, he could honestly say that he hadn't regretted it in the least. In fact, after reviewing the detestable actions of the youkai, he thoroughly wished to experience the feeling of cutting the damn monsters down again and again.

A calming hand landed on his shoulder.

"Ichigo, what's wrong? You seem agitated." It was Orihime. She must've noticed his angrier than usual expression.

Ichigo took a calming breath. He refused to let his anger make him lash out at her. She was too kindhearted for that. After all the inhumanity she had witnessed during the battle of Karakura, she held no ill will towards any of the monsters. Or at least she didn't as far as he could see. She was capable of getting mad every now and then, but rarely showed that side of her.

"It's nothing Orihime. Just thinking about the invasion." Ichigo calmly stated.

Uryuu looked at him from across the clearing. The quincy could easily detect Ichigo's angered reiatsu. He wasn't simply agitated. His reiatsu radiated of killing intent, which was something Uryuu had never seen before. Never in a fight had he seen Ichigo consciously take a life. He had bloodied people, sure. Never had Ichigo flat out committed a murder up until the Youkai invasion.

He could only imagine what running though the substitute shinigami's mind at the moment.

Uryuu then hazarded a glance over to Chad.

The stoic man was also in a fairly irritable mood, and the Quincy could guess why.

During the battle, Chad had rushed to save a little girl, maybe 8 years old at best. She was being held by her throat by a weird monster that looked human, but was surrounded with an odd red aura and daemonic eyes. Uryuu guessed by the fangs that it was a vampire. Chad sprinted at full tilt to save the child, but the vampire carelessly crushed every bone in the little girl's neck just before Chad had gotten there.

The Quincy had never thought that Chad was capable, nor had the temperance, to literally rip a man limb from limb before today.

To actually see Chad use his 'arm of the giant' and rip limbs from their sockets had frightened Uryuu deeply. He wasn't one to judge, as he had sent countless Youkai to their deaths. His arrows destroyed souls, so there wasn't even an afterlife for the Youkai he had slain. He couldn't bring himself to lament that fact.

Uryuu had paused as he considered his own feelings. He had just thought to himself that he didn't feel the least bit of remorse at killing another living being, and robbing it of an afterlife. He never dreamed of a day where he would feel so...coldly satisfied with murder.

The Qunicy shivered.

He could only wonder how badly this entire war had left him and his friends. In less than a few hours, he and his friends had become mass murderers. Sure, they were entirely justified, but he couldn't help but question himself.

Uryuu Ishida sighed. He hesitated to know how this war had affected the mentality of not only his friends, but his as well.

xxXxx

Tsukune was locked in his dorm, and quietly staring at the ceiling.

He couldn't bare to stay at this school, yet he had nowhere else to go at the moment. His home had been attacked by monsters. All of his family may or may not have been killed. The only people he could go to for help were nowhere near this area, as any augment available had been called to fight Fairy Tale. Eli was God knows where, along with every other augment he had seen since coming here. He was truly alone at this school.

The only people left that he could go to were damned monsters themselves.

Youkai academy had been temporarily closed down for the well being of the students. With a vast army of aggravated humans on one side, and an army of extremist Youkai on the other side, the students were all being sent back home for their personal safety. There was no telling whether or not Fairy Tale soldiers would attack the school, or human soldiers may bomb it.

The headmaster graciously allowed Tsukune to stay at the school, under his own personal protection.

Tsukune, so filled with emotions at the moment, didn't know whether or not to lash out at the man, or thank him. Instead, he only responded with silence, and a nod. Somehow, he got the vibe that the headmaster wouldn't hold him accountable for either action he took. He was a human attending a school of monsters, and finally when he starts to make friends, he learns that his parents may or may not have been murdered in cold blood due to the results of an idotic war.

The Exorcist was impressed that Tsukune didn't immediately start to do anything rash, and he was certain to use the term 'immediately'.

Tsukune avoided Moka and Kurumu, as well any other students, like the plague. In his state of mind, he may say something that he'll regret if he gets touched by the very same woman who tried to eternally enslave him into a lustful servant. He may even hit the vampire girl if she so much as tried to bite him, consequences be damned.

Kurumu felt that because Succubi never got involved in these types of things, she'd be safe from any fighting that occurred between the Youkai and Humans. As such, she was only mildly surprised by the news of war with the humans, and continued to act like she normally did. Tsukune felt the urge to remind her that she was not only affiliated with the Youkai, but had powers to enslave others, and had once intended to use them. That was more than enough reason for soldiers to come for the Succubi race. He resisted his urge to inform her of this because he was afraid his bitterness might show through.

Moka was slightly more receptive to Tsukune's emotions however. She knew that he was a human in a school for monsters. What's more, he had just found out that his very home was being attacked by the very same species he went to class every day with. Whatever insecurities Moka felt about being verbally bullied in middle school couldn't possibly compare to what Tsukune must be going through. When she finally found him and tried to comfort him, he simply shrugged her off and said he'd go to bed and take a nap.

That had been 2 days ago.

Youkai Academy only had one bus driver, and because of that, things were moving really slow. Any students whose parents couldn't pick them up had to wait for a chance to get on the Bus, which delayed the process by roughly a week. In that time, Tsukune didn't want to see another monster as long as he could. He had a fully stocked mini-fridge courtesy of the school, a bathroom, and a TV, so he had no reason to really leave. He was entirely comfortable with just waiting this out, and praying that something happened to get him away from here and back to his parents.

That is, if they hadn't been murdered.

*_Knock knock knock_*

"Tsukune, open the door! We're worried about you!"

"Yeah, it's been two days! What's wrong with you? Are you sick or something? If you are, I'd gladly come in to nurse you back to health!"

Tsukune let out a groan. He really didn't want to deal with any of them for... well however long he could. Never at all, if possible.

It was funny when he thought about it. Anime writers always made it seem like the teenage boy mind was locked and glued to lust for women, and that boys who resisted that urge always got more women. Now he was beginning to see where that fallacy had kicked up. Women didn't want someone who was uninterested in them. They (generally) wanted someone who wasn't prone to treat them like garbage. The guys at this school had it in their head that you were being perfectly nice to a girl as long as you didn't try to kill them. Sadly, the women here were as bad as any of the males. The swimming club had tried to drain the life energy of the boys in their pool during that whole Club fair business, but abruptly stopped when Eli had shown up with an expression that showed he was _beyond_ pissed off. The Jamaican augment had ordered the mermaids out of the pool and into the gymnasium for a surprise 'endurance test', which he thought was code for 'I'm going to beat the hell out of all of you for that stunt'. He said that if he noticed anyone of them weren't present, they would be expelled. At first he figured it was a bit harsh, but then he realized that those girls were literally about to murder a bunch of male students in cold blood. In most countries that was grounds for execution, regardless of age.

When he really thought about it, he had yet to meet any monster in this school that wasn't wrong in the head in some way.

Moka bit into him as if she was incapable of keeping a cap on something as simple as hunger, then repeatedly bit into him as if she couldn't comprehend the simple fact that biting and draining people of blood actually _hurt_ them. She only stopped being so insensitive about it because he flat out told her she was using him as a juice box, of course he wasn't himself at the time, but still. Then he didn't even want to get started on the split personality business. Despite all this, she was labeled as the 'hottest and nicest girl in the school'.

Kurumu had attempted to turn him into a sex slave, along with every other male in the school. Had he not happened to be her 'destined one', then she probably would've tried to carry on with her plan and try to get him again later on. He didn't know about others, but trying to mentally enslave someone for the rest of their life wasn't something you simply apologized for and expected for it to be forgotten. All of this information about her was common knowledge around school, yet seemingly no one had any problem with it.

Monsters were cruel and detestable creatures. They could barely think past their own primal urges, and rather than try to work through them, they just found reasons to condone their actions. Humans had been primal like they were too once upon a time, but they gradually pulled themselves out of their base instincts and found it in themselves to think about the well being of others and work together. Sure, self serving intentions were always involved, but humanity had evolved to a level where they could at least _attempt_ to find mutually beneficial alternatives. Monsters only thought of what they'd gain, and damned be anyone else's suffering. He was certain that the only reason they didn't abuse humans any old kind of way was because they knew they were horribly outnumbered, rather than any sense of right and wrong on the matter.

To drive this point home, he had overheard two boys discussing how much of a 'Ladies Man' Saizou was because he molested a lot of women at his old school. If that wasn't a clear indication of the disgusting mindset of monsters, than he didn't know what was. He was almost scared to find out what a monster may label a pedophile as. What scared him the most was that these students were acting how they did at a high school! He was terrified to think about what they must be like in their usual society to find absolutely nothing wrong with how they act. Tsukune saw Saizou a weak after the incident, not undergoing charges for assault, sexual harassment, or attacking an on-duty soldier. A student with a gun could probably show up and shoot up the cafeteria, and this school would probably give him a few days detention for it at worst.

To think these PWCD guys actually thought they could educate such a backward race.

"Tsukune we know you're in here! Let us in!"

Tsukune debated whether or not he could just ignore them until they went away. His two closest friends had technically both attacked him, one of which with the intent to kill, and they both just...blew if off like threatening someone's life wasn't a big deal whatsoever.

"Listen Tsukune, no destined one of mine is going to lock himself in a room all day! Open the door right now!" Kurumu yelled, banging her fist on the door.

Tsukune sighed, and resigned himself to his fate. He got up, wearing his pajama pants and a plain white shirt. He made a B-line for the front door, lazily moving around any obstacles on his way. Tsukune normally wasn't so bitter and cynical. He barely even thought about such hateful things like this as he carried out the usual motions of school. With all the things he was going through now; being in a monster school during an attack that may have killed all his friends and family, having no one around he could relate to, and having virtually no where to go, he felt every right to be angry with everything and everyone.

Tsukune reached the door and sighed. He just wanted to go home, away from super soldiers and monsters, away from species politics, and live a normal quite life. Was that too much to ask for?

He opened the door, a downcast expression on his face.

He jolted into surprise when he felt someone immediately engulf him in large hug. After a second he realized it was a girl that was just a little shorter than he was. After another second he realized that since he could breath it must be Moka.

"Hey what's the big idea! You told me not glomp him the second I see him just so you could do it instead!" Kurumu yelled out in anger.

Moka ignored the Succbus in favor of tightening her hold on Tsukune, who was starting to try and break away from her grip.

"I'm sorry Tsukune. I'm so, so, sorry."

Everyone paused. Kurumu had no idea what Moka was talking about, so she listened in more intently. Maybe she had done something to ruin her standing with Tsukune that would let her be able to swoop in and snatch him up! Tsukune said nothing, just looking past her and at the ground.

"I don't know what you may think of us now. You probably think that we're all horrible people now, but we didn't want for any of this to happen."

Tsukune's face subtly softened at the admission. She was hitting the nail on the head again after again. He just stood there, unable to do anything else at the moment. Kurumu stood to the side, observing quietly. Moka brought her head up out of Tsukune's chest, looking him square in the eye.

"Back at the beginning of the semester, I told you that I hated humans. Despite that, you still put yourself in harms way for my sake. Please, let me return the favor."

Moka took Tsukune's head in her hands and guided it to her shoulder, cradling him as if she were his mother. Tsukune was overwhelmed by everything that was happening. Everyone he loved was possibly dead, he couldn't return home for fear of being killed or caught in the crossfire of the war, and now the only two people he could call friends were comforting him in a way he had all but convinced himself that they were incapable of doing.

Tsukune began to silently cry into Moka's shoulder, letting out 2 days of heartache.

Kurumu watched the exchange with her eyes wide. She may not have been an expert analyst but she could read between the lines well enough to put two and two together. Tsukune was a human. If he was a human then everyone he knew was probably caught in the middle of that horrible attack, and if they weren't, they were in a completely different country for their own safety. He had nowhere to go.

Kurumu walked up to them and hugged Tsukune as well, her arms reaching around both Tsukune and Moka. She laid her head against the other side of Tsukune's shoulder, comfortingly rubbing his back.

No one said anything for awhile, just letting everything play out as it would.

xxXxx

**Author's Note:** Sorry to leave you all on such a sober note, but you all asked for me to touch up more on the main characters' involvement, so I did. And big thanks to everyone who has read this far.

Btw, to the guest that has been commenting, you bring up a lot of good points and questions. However, your status as a guest prevents me from responding to those reviews. Since I see reviewers as people whose job it is to judge and analyze this story for every flaw (hence the term 'reviewer' rather than 'commenter'), I make it a point to answer any questions one may have. Your status as a guest prevents me from PMing you any of my responses. It'd help you made an account, even if just a throwaway one.

As well, I realize that many of the things in this story are getting a bit too farfetched with my meager explanations in the beginning. I've gone into detail on how Power Armor functions and works in the Prologue at the very beginning of the story. Everything in this story, to a degree, legitimately exists, but the way I've presented them makes it look like I just stapled in every video game I could think of. Just something to be aware of in case you'd like to go back and read it. In addition, I've removed the FAQ simply for the fact it stuck out like a sore thumb to those reading through the story.


	38. PSA

**Public Service Announcement**

As a force of habit, I enjoy giving the bad news first, and then the good news. That way, the bad news is overshadowed somewhat, rather than the reverse. You may be wondering what exactly this news is. Well don't worry I'm going to tell you.

Well first off, the Bad news. This fic is done. I may revisit it to correct errors and mistakes, but aside from that. What you see is what you get. There will be no more updates, no more mention of this to anyone else, or anything. This story has run its course, and now I'm moving on from it. Sorry.

Good news. I've already posted up the sequel 'Crimes Against Humanity'. This story pics up _directly_ after this fic. I plan on trying to make this story a lot more slowly paced and better explained. On top of that, I've recently got a great proof-reader for this fic, so the amount of verbal errors should greatly decrease, if they aren't completely non-existent. Better yet, this story is already on its 4th chapter and counting. If this fic is your cup of tea, then the sequel should be a much greater improvement.

If you weren't currently aware of this, than pick up where this fic left off, and continue to see humans establish to everyone why they control everything in the first place. If you were already aware, then just ignore this as a tasteless attempt to get more readers and attention to my new fic.

Have a Merry Christmas folks! May your next few days be jolly and filled with mirth and food! And may the following days after Christmas not be plagued with credit card debt, loans, bad school grades, and unsatisfying presents! Because that would royally suck to put forth so much effort, only for it all to blow up in your face a week or two later! And if you celebrate a different holiday at this time of year, than by all means! Just make sure to let everyone be aware of that before they show up to your door with expensive presents that they expect you to take! Because that may cause a fight, and on Christmas day at that!

But no seriously, enjoy Christmas. Enjoy it while it lasts. This has been a Psykotic Addiction Public Service Announcement.


End file.
